Olufemi Oguntamu Is Reimagining African Heritage Through Living Codes

What happens when African culture stops being observed and starts being embedded into the technologies shaping the future? What happens when African culture becomes part of the technological future, not just its audience? These are the questions that birthed Living Codes: African Heritage in the Age of AI.

Curated by Olufemi Oguntamu, Living Codes explores the intersection of African heritage and artificial intelligence through contemporary creative expression. Organised by Handle It Africa in partnership with the British Council Nigeria and the United Nations Development Programme Nigeria, the exhibition examines how African stories, aesthetics, memory, and indigenous knowledge systems can evolve alongside emerging technologies without losing their identity.

At its core, Living Codes responds to a growing global tension. Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping creative industries across the world, from art and film to music, publishing, and design. Yet, while African culture continues to influence global conversations, questions around ownership, authorship, and representation remain unresolved.

For years, African aesthetics, language, music, fashion, and storytelling traditions have inspired global culture, while the systems controlling distribution, technology, and monetisation often remained elsewhere. Living Codes challenges that imbalance. The exhibition insists that African creativity must move beyond visibility into authorship, ownership, and influence.

Its curatorial statement describes culture as “living code” – something active, evolving, and constantly shaped by people and community practice rather than archived into silence. Through AI-assisted visual works, digital installations, experimental storytelling, and contemporary reinterpretations of African heritage, Living Codes explores how technology can preserve culture while also transforming it.

Rather than presenting AI as a threat to creativity, the exhibition approaches it as a collaborative medium; one capable of extending African narratives into new forms while still preserving authenticity and cultural memory. The event exhibited over 20 artists’ work including that of Malik Afegbua, Jeff Obiano, and Yusuff Aina. 

Opening in Lagos, Living Codes signals the beginning of a wider cultural movement. Designed as a travelling programme, the exhibition intends to expand beyond Nigeria into other creative capitals across Africa and internationally, creating conversations around African identity, technology, and creative ownership in the digital age.

For Oguntamu, the exhibition is less about presenting technology as spectacle and more about asking deeper cultural questions. “What happens when African creators actively shape the tools defining the future instead of simply adapting to them?” he asks. “That’s the conversation Living Codes is trying to open up.”

That question sits at the heart of the exhibition. As global conversations around AI accelerate, Africa once again risks being positioned primarily as a consumer rather than a contributor. Living Codes responds by centering African perspectives within the technological conversation itself. The collaboration between Handle It Africa, the British Council, and UNDP Nigeria reflects a broader commitment to supporting Africa’s evolving creative ecosystem. While the exhibition is rooted in art and storytelling, it also engages larger conversations around innovation, economic opportunity, cultural sustainability, and the future of African intellectual property.

In many ways, Living Codes is both an exhibition and a statement of intent. It argues that African creativity does not need to choose between heritage and innovation. The two can exist together,  strengthening each other. Heritage does not become less authentic because it evolves. If anything, evolution is proof that culture is alive because culture was never meant to stand still.