Finding EKAS.
Working with the invisible to design a brand marketplace run on the underlying logic of Re-humanisation and autonomy
Finding EKAS takes us on a journey of discovery and research across economics, psychology, the philosophy of space and more. Esther Kehinde Ajayi introduces us to the underlying logic and philosophies driving her sound practice. Upon coming across a quote found in Henri Lefebvre’s ‘The Production of Space’, which explained that the ‘elites’ make use of ‘A system’ by wielding their technical expertise and knowledge of its underlying logic in tandem with space to maintain hegemony, Esther armed herself with the fresh new perspective that we live an ecology of systems, some of which we have the knowledge and power to access and use to our benefit or destruction.
Considering the concept of the one and only “big bad” System, which we are constantly at the mercy of, as a myth of powerlessness, a cultural technology designed to play right into the underlying logic of systems of dehumanisation and spread its values, Esther Kehinde Ajayi considers the sound-based systems she has access to via her expert knowledge, technical expertise and agency, to try how she can use those systems on the basis of the underlying logic of re-humanisation to carefully design, frame and trade sonic cultural technologies, the invisible, to debunk myths of powerlessness concerning race, class, self-concept and more.
Referring to a study of Nazi propaganda and the ‘denial of mind’ as well as a recent study of states of persistent low-income in Britain, in finding EKAS, Esther Kehinde Ajayi lays out the blueprint on how she will be using her sound practice to create brand new evidence of agency, beauty, autonomy and hope in service of a brand-new market, a marketplace of re-humanisation.
Bio
Esther Kehinde Ajayi (EKAS) is a West London-based sound artist interested in facilitating the negotiation of social relations through sound practice and cultural technology design. Since graduating from the London College of Communications in 2024 with a BA in Sound Arts, Esther is now dedicated to facilitating evolving social relations in her city through sound design, audio production, audio sculptural installation, academia, and performance.
Bibliography
Henri Lefebvre, trans. Donald Nichols0n-Smith, The Production of Space, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2017)
Herman Narula,Virtual Society: (New York: Currency, 2022)
Oyèrónké Oyěwùmí, The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses (University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, 2016)
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Against decolonisation: Taking African Sgency Seriously, (C Hurst and Co: London, 2022)
Mark Casson, John S. Lee, ‘The Origin and Development of Markets: A Business History Perspective’, Business History Review, 85 (1), (2011), pp. 9–37
Alexander Landry, Kayla Mere, Ram I. Orr, Dehumanization and mass violence: A study of mental state language in Nazi propaganda (1927-1945) [Preprint, 2021]. doi:10.31234/osf.io/7w2vk.
Compulsive Under Earning – An Ambivalence About Success: Paul Sunderland: Tedxsurreyuniversity (2016)
Haiti, Africa and the Global Dynamics of Race – a conversation with Jemima Pierre (2023)