We recently connected with Kofi Oduro and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kofi, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of the most meaningful projects, I have worked on is Colorscape. The reason why I catergorized as this is because it has allowed me to showcase to others that technical fields such as data science and coding can be used to explore worlds and ideas that are outside our thoughts.

But before that, the idea came about from me wanted to enhance an experience and just blurting an idea of ” Why don’t we turn color into sound.”. My Collaborator at the time told me ” Why not? Let make it happen”.

That moment led me into finding ways to tell stories and has led me to embark on various other projects that may not seem typical. Bringing me to now think of objects and life in an interconnected mindset.

Leading me to say the following:

Poetry is Code and Code is Poetry
This Translation occurs Daily
It Happens Naturally
What is your current Scheme?
How do your moments in life be translate?
translate in moments that may elevate
elements that evaporate and melt
melt into their senses
melt into how our mind compresses
and how life may play the cards it has dealt

Which colors of the leaves
Represent your mood?
Which content of this time,
You want to view?
Want to witness
So it adds extra value
Acts as as glue
To add to your dream’s bigness
And heightens the hue
Vividness as the colors range
Like the leaves change
Adding beauty, regardless
Of the altitude
Be it on high on the tree
Or laying on the ground
The cycle that is involved

One of the current versions of the project is the following:

Dip in Code takes the concept of Hearing Colour, Seeing Sound while allowing the audience the pleasure of tasting colors and seeing taste while hearing it at the same time. Dip in Code: Kitchen of Hues, takes colors that happen to be named after food. To give an audiovisual experience that crosses over to an immersive culinary setting/Dining Experience as well. Every track isn’t a single color like its predecessor but will be named after meals that are also names of Colours. The soundtrack of each meal is Coded and visualized to make sure the meal is represented well. Enjoy that colorful byte.

Dip In Code takes Narrative Design, Mathematical Fiction, Data Analyzation, Data Visualization, Livecoding, Data Sonification, Creative Coding and merges them within themselves and other mediums to produce an experience that stems from the premise of everything being linked. It Is an interesting component of the Colorscape Universe with its own building and evolution grounded in the numbers it holds.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an Experiential Storyteller/Creative Coding/Performative Programmer that transforms data, words and code into experiences that nurtures discussion, reflection, and interaction. With a decade plus of performance, event & audiovisual production, he takes inspiration from endeavours that are not normally together to create a harmonic experience for audiences.

My artistic practice is an observation of the world around us that he puts into artworks for others to relate to or disagree with. Through Videography, Poetry and Creative Coding, He tries to highlight the realms of human performance and the human mind in different scenarios. These situations can be described as social, internal, or even biological, which we face in our everyday lives. Adding music and visuals often helps to perceive one’s own feelings, and to highlight the different subtleties that make us human. With a dose of technology, there is an endless range of progress in human creative endeavours.

The above mixture lends it stuff to what I like to call Experimental Animation/Audiovisual and Code-driven world building. Animation is my main source of inspiration since it allows exploration of the senses, our past/present/future .

It allows me to translate internal thoughts, external feelings and blend them into one showcase. Where my mathematical side can be mixed with my poetry and artistic side and flourish. Where the animation is allowed to speak to all of our senses and resonates beyond the current trajectory of sight and hearing. But resonate within our inner spirits, outer thoughts and social interactions with this place, known as Earth

This unique approach has led to gaining accolades and recognition both locally and internationally while actively participating and contributing to the communities , I am involved in. I am aiming to keep continuing to push boundaries , imagination and inspire those around.

Livecoding is an exploration , a translation
of thoughts I either conceived
or from others that I have seen
allowing myself to have implementation
that merges both analog and digital
some might consider it to be ritual

It allows me to think in different ways
take snippet of code and play
where I let my expressions freely roam
as code is poetry and poetry is code

At this point, I just like using an array of frameworks
I think of what framework will allow me to explore and give the audience and myself
something to experience and enjoy in depth
I think of the array of languages as packages
that are blank pages
waiting for me type in some code as the next steps

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As an Experiential StoryTeller/Creative Coder , I am glad that people get when they stumble upon my work and realise that this is a space that allows them to experiment and play. Guided play that not only simulates the technical abilities that are being presented at that moment but the ability to dream and reflect on concepts that weren’t previously in their pattern of thought. Throughout the years, I have gained extensive teaching and research experience in various domains, which includes designing and presenting my own research and workshops to others, providing mentorship to those engaging in digital arts and teaching at primary through adult learners. This reflects my ability to meet the needs of people that come across my work. WHen people tell me that the work has been useful in their thinking and they feel motivated and supported, that is one of the greatest rewards in a social context that occurs.

On a more personal note, it is the ability to research, experiment and play. As I mentioned earlier, being able to play with what is in my head and share it with the world, is rewarding itself.

Mistakes come, Mistakes Go
The journey still continues on this road
As the efforts of the past
Days and hours
Have blossomed into an array of flowers
From the mixed of external sunshine
And much needed internal showers
With mental fortitude as one of the powers
Ranging into a dreamscape , so vast
Vast in what we seek to desire
Inspire, admire
Inquire and wishes may not expire
If this was a fairytale,
Which way would your journey sail?
If this was a novel,
What ideas will be unearthed,
When one digs in and shovels?
If an idea had a chance to scale,
What will you birthed?

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

As a practitioner of new media and multimedia, I have been honing my skills both through learning and executing. From being involved in the NFB ONF/XP Program as a participant learning some of the animation techniques from NFB Contributors, Exchanging knowledge and networking in Accra during the Chale Wote Festival that is the largest street festival in Western Africa. At the Chale Wote Festival, I took on the role of showing how open source technology can merge with the workings of local artists, creatives and technologists and tie it together to themes of afrofuturism through another lens. Having these interactions has made me realize this is not only rewarding but also important. Important that these interactions can aid into new ideas and give a fresh of breath air if needed. And if not a fresh air, another set of pixels, sound and ideas that can flow into the air (both natural and digital)

In response to our present societal situation, I have also gotten a Mental Health First Aid Certificate. As for creatives in particular, it is important to make sure there is a mental health check and to provide extra support to the students when needed.At times, it is that extra push that makes the difference when supporting and interacting with peers This informs how I will design and maintain curriculums/projects that represent the creative process, as well as provide assurance of how I am capable of supporting the community around me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://portfolio.illestpreacha.com/links
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/illestpreacha/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/illestpreacha/
• Linkedin: https://www.polywork.com/illestpreacha/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/illestpreacha/
• Youtube: https://www.youtubecom/illestpreacha/
• Other: https://colorscape.illestpreacha.com/colorscape https://blog.illestpreacha.com/

Image Credits
Picture with the Frozen Leaves – Used Pixray Other pictures were Creatively Coded by me using : Processing, Hydra, Livecodelab, OpenScad