Innovation, derived from the Latin word “to renew”, is a manifestation of immaterial ideas translated to tangible products or services that successfully diffuse into our daily lives. Wielded by the great minds who have spurred humanity forward, it has played an important role in charging the changes we have seen take place in the world through the years.

From the climate to the technological boom, the end of this epoch - the Holocene - will see humanity very different from when it began at the start of the Ice Age.

In Africa, rapid globalization and its effects complicate our narratives in this evolution. We are often left reacting retroactively to non-African ideals, and frameworks imposed against our unique perspectives and relationship with innovation. In Nigeria, the flow from ideation to diffusion often takes a treacherous capitalist turn, disrupting culture, triggering uncontrolled urban migration, intensifying unchecked climate urgencies, and oftentimes, equilibrium is never fully realized, leaving us in a unique liminal space.

Amid these forces, we wield unparalleled technological power, and paradoxically, we feel more fragile than ever. This fragility is deeply intertwined with an evolving idea of humanity, which blooms in our collective reality as we go about our individual lives.

It is human to often fixate on our vulnerability. Acknowledging our vulnerability, as Naomi Klein argues, is the first step to averting potential downfall. It offers us an empathetic landscape to test for faults with our trusting hand.

The exhibitors:

Internal Dialogue, by Amy Karle - resident artist at Studio Quantum, resounds the theme of strength and style in vulnerability as we perform this daunting task. Her tools of choice - biotech, artificial intelligence, and fashion - offer new horizons to the mediating role which technology can play in this process.

Drumming New Worlds explores the talking drum, a sonic medium whose tonal chords have spurred listeners to romance, war, and celebration. The group’s collective artwork offers poetry towards themes of communication, and of heritage, as they honor the place of this indigenous technology in the evolving worlds.

Armed with awareness of ourselves and our culture, we are charged to explore the depth of the role we play in humanity to create new futures in negotiation with technology and the environment with Alter.Native.

Echoing antifragility, Waters of Rebirth offers an appreciation for the heritage and future of Okere people of Warri (Delta State) after a catastrophic flood; a consequence of climate risks which they face today.

Lastly, Wayfinders invite us to transcendence. Their exhibition logs and acknowledges the stressors which plague our daily lives here in Lagos and the immersive wonder and manifestos which they have created is a declaration of our strength to take up autonomy and responsibility to the reality we desire.

The ideas generated, and the products diffused in the innovation process are usually bloomed in closed doors only shining forth after a successful product is created. Dreaming New Worlds brings the transformative action of innovation to the public space, with collective thinking and practicing, critical conversations and projects that pose questions and challenge us to find and work to viable answers.