Ploeger, Daniel and Mbillo, Greenman Muleh (2022) Ûiiti: A treatment for ecological experience in mobile network culture. Journal of Environmental Media, 3 (1). pp. 177-180. ISSN 2632-2463

Abstract

Ûiiti (‘the treatment’) is an Android phone app created by artist duo Greenman Muleh Mbillo, in Kenya, and Dani Ploeger, in the Netherlands. The work is a high-tech iteration of the nzevu, a ritual instrument of the Kenyan Akamba tribe. It transforms a smartphone from a networking technology with complex modes of interaction into a technology of transcendence with a minimal user interface. Through a constellation of symbolic imagery and the performance of repetitive sonic patterns, the work aims to evoke a heightened experience of the user’s immediate lifeworld.