Playing and Replay: The Body as Interface with Central African Traditions

What is it about?

This article reflects on interactive installations created for an exhibition on Central African arts, exploring how body-centred digital mediation can re-present artefacts not as static symbols, but as relational, living encounters with people’s practices and memories. Through processes of reconstruction and reenactment, the installations cultivate zones of sensory and spiritual liminality. Participants glide between player and enactor, spectator and mediator, becoming part of the experience, through which viewing transforms into acts and spectacles of play.

Featured Image

Photo by Artem Mihailov on Unsplash

Photo by Artem Mihailov on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study responds to the curatorial challenge facing museums and exhibition spaces today as they evolve from spaces of display to sites of engagement, as well as to the growing significance of working with intangible cultural forms, which are often entwined with bodily and spiritual practices.