00 / Enter the archive
The compound organises labour, care, movement, food, sound, memory, education, and public life. These are not illustrations beside the research. They are the conditions from which the research thinks, writes, listens, and remembers.
01 / Compound house
compound house → design as lived system
The compound house is not a background. It is a living system of relation, care, labour, memory, repair, exchange, sound, movement, and public knowledge.
A monograph developing African-centred approaches to design theory, method, education, and practice.
Open work ↗
A book on African design futures, decolonising minds, education, spatial practice, and African creative futures.
Open work ↗
An encyclopedia chapter on African decolonial design practices, architecture, plurality, and the Anthropocene.
Open work ↗
A journal article using storied ethnography to reimagine design education in Ghana and Africa through cultural, historical, and social realities.
Open work ↗
Opening chapter from African Design Futures, setting out the broader argument for reimagining design from African contexts.
Open work ↗
A chapter revisiting foundations of African design education and the inherited structures that shape design learning.
Open work ↗
A chapter on African design aesthetics, visual systems, memory, and historical inheritance.
Open work ↗
02 / Fufu mortar / pestle
fufu pounding → labour, rhythm, gender, food, embodied knowledge
The fufu mortar is not only a domestic object. It is a timing device, a social instrument, and a design system organised through rhythm, trust, force, food, gendered labour, and memory.
A chapter from Decolonising Design in Africa on the foundations of African design education and practice.
Open work ↗
A chapter examining the distance between inherited educational structures and African design realities.
Open work ↗
A chapter on spirituality, religion, art, and embodied practice in African design education.
Open work ↗
A chapter connecting postcolonial politics, ideals, and the formation of African design education.
Open work ↗
A conference paper from DATTArc on Sankofa, African philosophy, postcolonial space, and design education in Ghana.
Open work ↗
A preprint unpacking postcolonial theory, African philosophy, storytelling, and alterity in education.
Open work ↗
03 / Radio
radio → sound, Afrobeats, highlife, public memory
The radio holds sound as public memory. It carries highlife, Afrobeats, news, gossip, mourning, politics, and the shared atmosphere of the compound.
A developing theoretical work on Afrobeats as sonic design system, diasporic memory, and African urban aesthetics.
Open work ↗
Audio conversations and reflections on African culture, sound, identity, politics, and public thought.
Open work ↗
A podcast interview on design, Africa, education, injustice, culture, and imagining better futures.
Open work ↗
A developing study of Ghanaian highlife album art, socioeconomic context, visual culture, and design semiotics.
Open work ↗
04 / Market wares
market wares → informal economy, African design systems
The market cloth, small goods, repairs, bargaining, display systems, and informal exchange are not outside design. They are design systems already organising survival.
A literary work about survival, shame, economy, memory, and the everyday violence of postcolonial life.
Open work ↗
A public commentary piece on culture, economy, informal exchange, and Ghanaian public life.
Open work ↗
A public commentary piece on Ghanaian public memory, sport, heroism, and national imagination.
Open work ↗
A public-facing reflection on history, narrative power, and whose stories become public truth.
Open work ↗
A creative work published in Bridges: writings from WestWord's African Literature Development Program.
Open work ↗
05 / Women cooking
women cooking → care, climate, domestic infrastructure
Cooking, water, heat, smoke, food, care, and repair are domestic infrastructures. They reveal how climate, disability, gender, and survival are organised through everyday systems.
A co-designed research project on disability-inclusive emergency communication and safe spaces in climate disasters.
Open work ↗
Research on disabled people in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, informal care, and emergency communication.
Open work ↗
A critical review of children and young people's voices and experiences across floods, education, water, and disaster studies.
Open work ↗
An environmental education article theorising water through posthuman ecologies, lines, knots, and artful practices.
Open work ↗
A chapter from Arts-Based Thought Experiments for a Posthuman Earth on disrupted worlds, praxis, and more-than-human knowing.
Open work ↗
06 / Children running
children running → education, futures, pedagogy
Children moving through the compound make the future visible. Education begins here, in movement, play, observation, memory, correction, experimentation, and belonging.
A framework for responsible generative AI use in education, with attention to privacy, bias, transparency, integrity, and accountability.
Open work ↗
A conceptual framework for ICT teaching practices in rural Ghanaian schools without reliable access to computers or internet.
Open work ↗
A study on design, evaluation, usability techniques, and redesign processes for online learning platforms.
Open work ↗
A youth-centred climate education paper on post-flood Lismore, memory, and climate understanding.
Open work ↗
A book project on quantum aesthetics, design, Indigenous knowledge, neurodiversity, and future learning environments.
Open work ↗
A conference paper presented at AARE on design education boundaries, Africa, and decolonial possibilities.
Open work ↗
A withdrawn preprint calling for traditional and Indigenous design practices in TVET graphic design education in Ghana.
Open work ↗
07 / Newspaper texture
newspaper collage texture → archive, colonial memory, public record
The newspaper fragments turn the compound into an archive. They ask who records public life, who names the past, and how colonial categories continue to shape what counts as history.
A design history intervention on time, tradition, empire, and the politics of historical classification.
Open work ↗
A Cambridge Elements project on bureaucratic delay, African Indigenous futurities, galamsey, and temporal sovereignty.
Open work ↗
A chapter in African Design Futures on Blackness, visual narrative, representation, and design memory.
Open work ↗
A chapter examining education and postcolonial African design across historical and pedagogical contexts.
Open work ↗
A chapter distilling lessons on design, education, and decolonising creative practice.
Open work ↗
A chapter on design, consciousness, and the transformation of educational and cultural imagination.
Open work ↗
08 / Clothesline
clothesline → everyday aesthetics, identity, material culture
The clothesline is a public display system. Cloth, colour, drying, repair, modesty, identity, weather, and household rhythm become part of the compound’s visual language.
A journal article on counteracting AI bias with Indigenous epistemologies, participatory AI development, and data governance.
Open work ↗
A national digital heritage project involving information architecture, accessible UX, metadata, governance, and community engagement.
Open work ↗
A curated project exploring decolonial design history, community practice, and African futures.
Open work ↗
A Design Research Society EdSIG talk on African-centred design education and decolonial futures.
Open work ↗
Publications / media / talks / audio
This archive gathers books, papers, chapters, essays, talks, audio, and research projects through the lived systems that shaped them.
A monograph developing African-centred approaches to design theory, method, education, and practice.
Compound as theory
A book on African design futures, decolonising minds, education, spatial practice, and African creative futures.
Compound as theory
An encyclopedia chapter on African decolonial design practices, architecture, plurality, and the Anthropocene.
Compound as theory
A journal article using storied ethnography to reimagine design education in Ghana and Africa through cultural, historical, and social realities.
Compound as theory
Opening chapter from African Design Futures, setting out the broader argument for reimagining design from African contexts.
Compound as theory
A chapter revisiting foundations of African design education and the inherited structures that shape design learning.
Compound as theory
A chapter on African design aesthetics, visual systems, memory, and historical inheritance.
Compound as theory
A chapter from Decolonising Design in Africa on the foundations of African design education and practice.
Rhythm / labour
A chapter examining the distance between inherited educational structures and African design realities.
Rhythm / labour
A chapter on spirituality, religion, art, and embodied practice in African design education.
Rhythm / labour
A chapter connecting postcolonial politics, ideals, and the formation of African design education.
Rhythm / labour
A conference paper from DATTArc on Sankofa, African philosophy, postcolonial space, and design education in Ghana.
Rhythm / labour
A preprint unpacking postcolonial theory, African philosophy, storytelling, and alterity in education.
Rhythm / labour
A developing theoretical work on Afrobeats as sonic design system, diasporic memory, and African urban aesthetics.
Sound / memory
Audio conversations and reflections on African culture, sound, identity, politics, and public thought.
Sound / memory
A podcast interview on design, Africa, education, injustice, culture, and imagining better futures.
Sound / memory
A developing study of Ghanaian highlife album art, socioeconomic context, visual culture, and design semiotics.
Sound / memory
A literary work about survival, shame, economy, memory, and the everyday violence of postcolonial life.
Informal economy
A public commentary piece on culture, economy, informal exchange, and Ghanaian public life.
Informal economy
A public commentary piece on Ghanaian public memory, sport, heroism, and national imagination.
Informal economy
A public-facing reflection on history, narrative power, and whose stories become public truth.
Informal economy
A creative work published in Bridges: writings from WestWord's African Literature Development Program.
Informal economy
A co-designed research project on disability-inclusive emergency communication and safe spaces in climate disasters.
Care / climate
Research on disabled people in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, informal care, and emergency communication.
Care / climate
A critical review of children and young people's voices and experiences across floods, education, water, and disaster studies.
Care / climate
An environmental education article theorising water through posthuman ecologies, lines, knots, and artful practices.
Care / climate
A chapter from Arts-Based Thought Experiments for a Posthuman Earth on disrupted worlds, praxis, and more-than-human knowing.
Care / climate
A framework for responsible generative AI use in education, with attention to privacy, bias, transparency, integrity, and accountability.
Education / futures
A conceptual framework for ICT teaching practices in rural Ghanaian schools without reliable access to computers or internet.
Education / futures
A study on design, evaluation, usability techniques, and redesign processes for online learning platforms.
Education / futures
A youth-centred climate education paper on post-flood Lismore, memory, and climate understanding.
Education / futures
A book project on quantum aesthetics, design, Indigenous knowledge, neurodiversity, and future learning environments.
Education / futures
A conference paper presented at AARE on design education boundaries, Africa, and decolonial possibilities.
Education / futures
A withdrawn preprint calling for traditional and Indigenous design practices in TVET graphic design education in Ghana.
Education / futures
A design history intervention on time, tradition, empire, and the politics of historical classification.
Archive / memory
A Cambridge Elements project on bureaucratic delay, African Indigenous futurities, galamsey, and temporal sovereignty.
Archive / memory
A chapter in African Design Futures on Blackness, visual narrative, representation, and design memory.
Archive / memory
A chapter examining education and postcolonial African design across historical and pedagogical contexts.
Archive / memory
A chapter distilling lessons on design, education, and decolonising creative practice.
Archive / memory
A chapter on design, consciousness, and the transformation of educational and cultural imagination.
Archive / memory
A journal article on counteracting AI bias with Indigenous epistemologies, participatory AI development, and data governance.
Material culture
A national digital heritage project involving information architecture, accessible UX, metadata, governance, and community engagement.
Material culture
A curated project exploring decolonial design history, community practice, and African futures.
Material culture
A Design Research Society EdSIG talk on African-centred design education and decolonial futures.
Material culture