Nosukaay is an interactive installation that is a first attempt at an altered «computer», a textile machine, a hybrid form between West African loom and computer. I use the structure of the Manjacque loom in which the two traditional frames of the loom are replaced by two screens of which only the thinnest functional envelope remains. Nosukaay the machine deity tells a story about an alternative history highlighting the links between computers, Manjak weaving knowledge and mathematics, mixing texts, film documentation taken in Senegal and 3D images.
The viewer is invited to use the Manjak loincloth, woven with two hands by the artist and the weaver Edimar Rosa in his workshop in Dakar, as a keyboard to enter the story.
With this soft keyboard the viewer can make choice like in a video game and explore different parts of the experience. The images unravel as he or she strokes, caresses, presses, touches the cloth. A kind of trust is formed between the viewer and the artpiece as depending of the path taken, some infos are hidden or revealed.