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By Mohammed Hassan
Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof Abdalla Uba Adamu, has been appointed as member of the Advisory Board on the ArtoP: Visualisation of Politics in Nigeria project which is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The project, which will last 30 months, involves partnerships between Bournemouth University, Bayero University, Kano, University of Lagos and, to a limited extent, National Open University of Nigeria. The limitation on NOUN is that Prof. Adamu has less than two years to serve out his term as an “adjunct professor in the Department of Mass Communication, NOUN”, and the project might extend beyond that.
The other Advisory Board members are Dr. Charles Gore, and Dr. Paula Callus of Bournemouth University who co-ordinates the project.
ArtoP investigates the articulations of political discourse in Nigeria through still and moving images in the visual arts, utilising Nigerian elections as the field of study. This research takes place at a crucial time; catalysed by electoral campaigning, the creative industries, related artistic practice, and political discourse converge to occupy shared cultural spaces.
Nigerian creative industries intertwine with its political structures that inform its trajectories.
ArtoP recognizes that contemporary political landscapes necessitate a specific engagement with technologies, assemblages and modes of visuality in the creation and consumption of visual content in a social environment that is increasingly turning to the digital. ArtoP thus focuses upon visual content that circulates in networked spaces and elicits a shift in the emphasis from the textual to the visual.
As ArtoP curates these images it will be informing globalised creative industries and extend knowledge of new democracies such as that of Nigeria.
In the photo: Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu (right) with Dr. Charles Gore of the School of African and Oriental Studies, London, at the Bournemouth University, UK, International College on 6th March 2019.
