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ISSUE 001 PEOPLE. TECH. CULTURE a unique confluence of rural and urban
Deep dive into the explosive and spritual sounds of Obongjayar, a Nigerian London-Based Artiste
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Is your head full of ideas but blank when it meets paper? I know… it happens to the best of us. We can turn your doodles to bestseller books.
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CONTENT 04 07 11 15 16 18
Tech Culture Design Flash Fiction Vanity People
a unique confluence of rural and urban
Guava is a bimonthly magazine published by Kahn Digital Limited. For enquiries: hello@kahndigital.tech Copyright worldwide of all editorial content is held by Kahn. Reproduction in whole or part is forbidden.
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Tech is rapidly advancing into the human mind, and soon, you’ll be able to make posts and send messages on Facebook without touching your phone.
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Ctrl-labs is developing new ways of interacting with tech through our neurons. This works through a wristband that translates musculoneural signals into machine-interpretable commands. This is away from the use of a mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, voice, or any other input we’ve adopted. The wrist-worn connects over Bluetooth to a PC or smartphone for processing.
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CTRL-Labs’ work is built on a technology known as differential electromyography, or EMG. It captures your intention so you can share a photo with a friend using an imperceptible movement or just by, well, intending to. This largely takes away the drudgery in typing especially when thoughts and words flow way faster than we could ever type. Really, there would be no difference between how you produce oral speech and how you produce this controlled text flow. Speed aside though; there are clearly many applications for typing without a keyboard, touchscreen, or microphone.
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AR, VR, and emerging platforms. Typing with your mind is just one of many examples Ctrl-labs has shown off that intrigued Facebook enough to buy the company in September 2019.
However, this product is not currently commercially available and may take up to 5 years or more to get it in your hands or as a part of another device.
CTRL-labs’ first dev kit is a gesture-tracking neural controller 12:38 / 37:04
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CULTURE
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Social media can make us lonelier but it’s the only option we have during the lockdown.
In resonance with the current situation, The French group formed by Nili Hadida and Benjamin Cotto share their lonely daily lives by videoconference in a new song: “Lonely Life”. “Lonely Life”, a soft and melancholic music, illustrates a loneliness shared by millions of people for whom exchanges are made only by interposed screens.
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To a large extent, the COVID19 pandemic has caused a collapse in social contact and has forced people to limit their physical touch with others. This has largely increased the use of social media as a means of connection. The most vulnerable persons have been adversely affected by this surge, making them susceptible to mental dysfunctions such as anxiety, fear of missing out (FOMO) and even depression. Being socially connected to others can ease stress, anxiety, and depression, boost self-worth, provide comfort and joy, prevent loneliness, and even add years to your life. On the flip side, lacking strong social connections can pose a serious risk to your mental and emotional health. Ironically for a technology that’s designed to bring people closer together, spending too much time engaging with social media can actually make you feel more lonely and depressed. Ultimately, moderation is key. The endearing duo of French pop had made themselves known in particular with the song “Let’s no pretend” and more broadly with the global hit “Prayer in C.”. 8
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Imagine if Leonardo da Vinci had discarded the Mona Lisa painting out of self-doubt. 9
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Patrick Kramer, a German artist finds inspiration in this perfectionist imagination. Having destroyed some of his own creations as most artists have, he decided to hinge his art on recreating damaged versions of masterpieces with Photoshop, in order to give the illusion of scraped paint.
He has created damaged versions of classics such as Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring Girl, The Kiss of Klimt. This somehow reminds us to never give up on our heART. 10
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DESIGN
How would you like a home you can take with you everywhere?
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Data Oruwari combines her interests in the healing arts and her love for visual arts to create highlydetailed, hand-rendered sacred works of art that serve to heal and reconnect humanity with spirituality from an African perspective.
Anya-Anwu: Enlightenment (2019) | (20” x 30”) | Ink, Gouache and Gold Leaf on Archival Paper 13
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The Awakening | (20” x 14”) | Ink, Acrylic, Gouache and Gold Leaf on Archival Paper 14
FLASH FICTION
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Every time you say you love me, you put her down. Every time I say I love you, I put down womanhood. Welcome honey, you smell good. Only that your wife bought you this fragrance. And that tells why it haunts me. How can you want me to be content? How can you ask me to focus, when I am only the distraction? I wrap my hands around you. I hold you tight. I squeeze your bones against my thigh because I know you can’t be mine and it can never be fine. When all I needed was to be your friend; when I needed a mentor, when all that you should have taught me melted into cold lust. As I lie in this luxury, knowing it will not last, I sink into this mirage of wealth and I am willing to be wielded by your will, because you create for me a paradise I cannot refuse. So I stick here and let myself feel the happiness that has sunken too deep it seems to always disappear. I try to bask in the moment of your fleeting affection. Because when you are tired of my hard nipples, my lack will dawn back on me. I am just a poor girl in wealthy arms.
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Today I went grocery shopping in the rain Just to re-enact going to buy pepper For my grandmother’s edikan-ikong In the rain.
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VANITY
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We need to write about tangerine I should have bought tangerine I forgot, I bought orange instead but orange isn’t tangerine. Isn’t it? It isn’t. Tangerine and oranges are both members of the citrus family. But tangerines are richer sources of vitamin A.
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Let our designers bring your imaginations to life… magazines and book covers, classic logos, business cards and brochures… just how you imagined.
What’s on your mind? 18
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PEOPLE
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Obongjayar is a force trailing a fresh path in the music world with a genre which could be described as afrobeat mixed with electronics and soul, but virtually more spiritual on a deep level.
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His captivatingly deep vocals dance fluidly between rapping, singing and spoken as he ruminates on racism and culture dispute, spirituality, essentiality, as well as politics.
@obongjayar
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Listen to Eccentric Conversations.
The Power of Conversation S1 E7
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