I EDITION Makers and energy in African cities

I Edition MAKERS Y ENERGY IN AFRICAN CITIES

2016-2020

G R I G R I P I X E L

Esta es una Plaza MADRID 2016

From February 23 to March 5, 2016 in Medialab Prado and in Esta es una Plaza.

The team of guests: Zainab Fasiki from Casablanca, Kokou Elolo from Lomé, Mamadou Coulibaly from Bamako and Modou Ngom from Dakar. Within the framework of Objetos Comunes project of Medialab Prado, the first edition of the Grigri Pixel workshop was held in Madrid. Under the pretext of manufacturing energy-efficient urban objects, the project sought to create alliances between citizen managed spaces in different African countries and the self-managed community garden Esta es una Plaza in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés.

Another important aspect of this meeting was to reflect on the different forms of intervention in the urban sphere, paying special attention to the ways of doing in the green spaces self-managed by citizens in Madrid and in four African cities.

Grigri Pixel invited in this first edition four African makers from Bamako (Mali), Dakar (Senegal), Lome (Togo) and Casablanca (Morocco), four makers, handyman, activists and artists, representatives of four groups linked to the promotion and dissemination of open source manufacturing, to seek innovative and creative proposals for the development of a prototype that brings other perspectives to energy autonomy in urban spaces.

With this workshop we wanted to connect knowledge and strategies of African makers and, in this way, think about digital manufacturing and the production of everyday objects from the perspective of other territories.

2016-2020

GRIGRI PIXEL

IMAGES:

Previous page: preparing the DJ session for the final party using the energy produced by Grigri Totem. This page (up): Modou Ngom with Irene Ayala in one of the initial working groups. This page (down): Kokou Elolo with Rocío Rosado and Beatriz Moreno during the manufacture of the grigri.

The prototype that was made during Grigri Pixel sought to give way to think how to make our cities more habitable through technological devices capable of generating alternatives that produce values of autonomy and good living for their communities.

A prototype, in the form of collective amulet / grigri, to protect and illuminate the common spaces of cities.

The manufacturing workshop was carried out in close collaboration with a group of twenty-six participants.

For two weeks two magical objects were designed and manufactured collectively to protect the space of This is a square.

2016-2020

G R I G R I P I X E L

IMAGES: This page (up): Manufacture of solar panels for the Grigri Totem in the Fablab of Medialab Prado. This page (down): Assembly of the wheel producing kinetic energy for the Grigri Relax. Next page: Final party in the light of Grigri Totem in Esta es una Plaza.

The workshop started from a questioning about the ways to provide solutions beyond the purchase and assembly of materials such as manufacturing a solar panel following the steps of a tutorial.

By sharing the experiences of the African makers invited to the workshop, we wanted to emphasize the planned obsolence of the objects and delve into the implications and possibilities of manufacturing with low budgets, recycled materials and discarded, almost unusable technologies.

It was thus attempted to provide a critical look at digital manufacturing, completing the questions that Common Objects launched the program where this first edition of Grigri Pixel was registered.

2016-2020

GRIGRI PIXEL

The two grigris or collective amulets produced during the workshop were:

On the one hand the Grigri Totem, a small wooden truck equipped with solar panels to connect a projector, illuminate or charge the mobile.

On the other hand, the Grigri Relax, a rocker capable of producing energy and lighting from the joint movement of 2 or more people when rocking.

This second prototype was the starting point to design the production workshop that would take place in Dakar a few weeks later.

2016-2020

G R I G R I P I X E L

Jardin Jet d’Eau DAKAR 2016

From April 25 to May 3, 2016 at Kër Thiossane and at the Jardin Jet d’Eau.

Within the framework of the I Edition we participated in the Afropixel Festival, organized by the Kër Thiossane art center, with a workshop for the

production of self-sufficient lighting prototypes.

In the framework of the Afropixel Festival, the second Grigri Pixel manufacturing experience was developed in Dakar, between April 25 and May 3, 2016. This festival, organized by the multimedia art center Kër Thiossane, dedicated this fifth edition to the reflection on the city, digital manufacturing and the production of urban common goods, was an ideal context for that second stage of the project in which the Grigri Pixel team was expanded with the incorporation of Adrián de Miguel, who joined to collaborate in registration and production work.

The proposed manufacturing workshop was carried out based on the premise of retaking the rocking prototype capable of producing energy and lighting carried out in the Madrid workshop. The objective was to rethink the previously investigated system and adapt it to collectively design and build a see-saw capable of illuminating the Jet d'Eau Garden, a community space managed by Kër Thiossane in collaboration with various neighbors inside a block of flats in the Sicap Liberté II neighborhood in Dakar.

Thanks to the collaboration of 18 participants from 6 different African countries and with the essential support of Modou Ngom, one of the participants in the workshop in Madrid, a magical object was co-designed and manufactured for two weeks to illuminate the Garden with the movement produced by the swing of children when playing.

2016-2020

GRIGRI PIXEL

IMAGES:

Previous page: Afate and Abdoulaye with the wood prototype made during the workshop. This page (up): Yago Torroja working with the participants in the solar cell welding. This page (down): Hassane Dao during the manufacture of the grigri.

With this second experience, we sought to continue responding to some of the objectives of the program:

- Publicize collaborative digital design and manufacturing practices from the African continent, with special emphasis on the use of recycled materials and disposable technologies to produce objects. - Disseminate critical and contemporary practices of free culture and digital manufacturing from the African continent. - Share ways of making self-managed green spaces, in this case the Jardin Jet d’Eau in the city of Dakar. - Facilitate free culture cooperation projects between the African nodes of Grigri Pixel and the learning communities of Medialab Prado.

2016-2020

G R I G R I P I X E L

IMAGES:

This page (up): Grigri electronics detail: light wheel feed. This page (down): Light effect produced by the wheel in motion. Next page: A moment during the final presentation of the self-sufficient see-saw prototype at the Jardin Jet d’Eau.

This second experience of Grigri Pixel continued and completed the line initiated in Madrid in terms of the manufacture of energy self-sufficient urban furniture, as well as the development of works in the context of a community garden space. Starting from the rocking chair prototype made in Madrid, we worked on adapting the system designed to be used in the manufacture of a seesaw, that could provide a recreational space for the Jet d'Eau Garden that did not have any area of this kind. Continuing with the same idea of producing electricity from the kinetic energy generated by the movement when playing, this grigri was built incorporating a luminous and interactive mobile element manufactured from a bicycle wheel.

2016-2020

GRIGRI PIXEL

Participants:

From Senegal: Hamidou Ba, Mamadou Barry, Moustapha Coly, Moddio Daff, Jeremie Roland Diatta, Awa Diouf, Mame Mor Faye, Issa Guéye, Fatime Mbengue, Pape Assane Ndao, Daouda Ngom, Mohamadou Ngom y Joséphine S. Séne.

From Camerún: Cyrille Essoh.

From Mali: Abdoulaye Bouaré.

From Congo: Stiven Briand Massala.

From Togo: Afate Gnikou.

From Burkina Faso: Jacob Sawadogo.