Locally Situated Digital Representation of Indigenous Knowledge: Co-constructing a new digital reality in rural Africa

Digital re-presentation of indigenous knowledge remains an absurdity as long as we fail to deconstruct the prevalent design paradigm and techniques continuously re-framing technology within a western epistemology. This paper discusses key challenges in attempts of co-constructing a digital representation based on experiences from a longitudinal community-centred research project in rural Africa. In a quest to shape design from a locally situated viewpoint, we codesign a 3D visualization of an African village with its inhabitants. Prior invisible local perspectives, as well as dominant designer’s views are brought to light within the design interactions. A new digital reality is created at the periphery of the situated knowledge through continuous negotiations and joint meaning making.