Quick facts:Conflux Course
The Conflux Course was a 5-week hybrid workshop series in which members of the ANANSI Revolutionary Collective taught and participated in different variations of our musical Conflux technique. The series was an innovative initiative designed to explore the boundaries of remote collaborative art production, focusing on music creation, tele-production, and tele-performance. The workshops aimed to teach people necessary techniques and technologies to collaborate on music creation regardless of physical distance.
The workshops aimed to create an inclusive environment where participants from all skill levels could engage, learn, and contribute to shared artistic projects. The course was in partnership with Santuri Electronic Music Academy and the fifth session was a part of the inaugural Kilele Music Technology Symposium.
History
The Conflux initiative began as an experimental project in 2020 to test the possibilities of remote collaborative music-making. It was initially applied to music production, and over time, the Conflux model has expanded to incorporate visuals and writing, becoming a true embodiment of "new media art." The first Conflux session was hosted over a few weeks, and since then, the program has grown, hosting numerous sessions across various platforms, tools, and media.
The workshops are grounded in the idea that emerging technologies can facilitate collaboration among artists in different physical locations. The name "Conflux" reflects this idea of a coming together—both artistically and through the technologies that make these collaborations possible.
The first session included an overview on the history of the Conflux technique.
Program Structure
The Conflux Workshops were structured as a series of five sessions, each designed to introduce different collaborative techniques and tools. The workshops were approximately 2.5 hours long, with a balanced structure that included lectures, demonstrations, practice time, and optional open laboratory sessions for continued learning.
Each week focused on a different technique within the Conflux approach, which included:
Week 1: Confluxtape – Asynchronous collaboration where participants co-create music asynchronously.
Week 2: Conflux Jam – Live collaborative sessions focusing on creating a single track in real-time.
Week 3: Conflux QP – Quick Play sessions where participants work independently on multiple tracks simultaneously.
Week 4: Conscendo – Introduction to tele-performance using tools like SonoBus and Tele-Midi for live collaborative sessions.
Week 5: Kilele Conflux Event – A final event that brought together all participants for a collaborative, hybrid session. This final session was a part of the Kilele Festival and many participants organically joined the sessions after seeing them take place in person. This collaboration with Santuri also provided ANANSI with a DJ slot during the festival, which KJ performed in as a member of the collective.
Through the partnership with Santuri, every week participants were able to join in-person at the The Mall in Westlands, Nairobi, or could join remotely through Gather. For the final session, people could also join from in person in Kilifi, Kenya.
Praxis
The workshop series took place over the course of 5 weeks and involved many members of the collective facilitating and teaching various Conflux techniques.
Technology
Throughout the workshops, participants utilized various tools and platforms to enable remote collaboration:
BandLab – A cloud-based Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) for music production and collaboration.
Soundation – An online DAW used in the Conflux Jam technique for real-time collaboration.
Gather.town – A virtual meeting space for interaction and collaboration.
SonoBus – A low-latency audio streaming platform used for tele-performance and collaboration.
Tele-MIDI – Rather than a specific tool, when participants explored tele-MIDI, we introduced them to a suite of tools and technologies that would enable them to collaborate in real time. These tools included rtpMIDI, ZeroTier, and virtual MIDI buses like LoopBe and LoopMIDI.
Economics
As per the norm, the collective engaged in a Collective Budgeting exercise to allocate funds. This project was financially a net-loss.
The collective was paid 10,000 KES by Santuri for the sundowner set, and the collective earned 4,800 KES from ticket sales. Five teachers were paid 10,000 KES each for a total of 50,000 KES, and four other members received 4,000 KES each for their participation for a total of 16,000 KES. In total, the project cost about 67,000 KES which was paid out from our Commons.
People
Members
- Kadallah Burrowes - Project Catalyst, Teacher
- Ndung’u Mbithi - Teacher, In-Person Facilitator
- Nardja Owens - Teacher
- Nabalayo - Teacher
- Ondieki - Teacher
- Sultan - In-Person Facilitator
- Jabez Mutoria - In-Person Facilitator
Partner Organizations
Media
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