Between the Mast ands the Art

IT operators hardly see any real value to drive their
services beyond using artists to sell their brands,
but there is more to Art which is life and IT, also
life, than using art forms to rubberstamp their
brands. By SEYI AYORINDE, Art IT Editor

It would seem like all the telecommunications
companies in Nigeria have fallen into the age old idea
by corporate organisations of using the arts, and the
ebullient expressions of them, only as a vehicle of
propagating, or better put, advertising their
products.
 

The more robust, often intellectually stimulating
relationship between the product and the propagator is
always ignored; if at all that relationship is
recognised. Or how would one describe the utter
neglect of the relationship between telecommunications
and the arts, not only as a potent factor of
propagation, but also as a symbol of essential
collaborations.
 

The GSM companies are as guilty as the fixed wireless
telephone providers. Beyond using musicians, actors or
models to advertise their products, or giving some
amount of sponsorship to art programmes, mainly
popular art, telecom companies do not seem to realise
other areas of fruitful cohesion.
 

But what happens to the saintly relationship between
the arts, in all its ramifications, and
telecommunications telchnology? How much of art is
contained in the vision and implementation of
telecommunications technology today? In other words,
how much of Information Art should become a recognised
concept on the Nigerian art scene?
 

Ostensibly, much of the answers lies with the telecom
companies, since they are the ‘new comers’ so to
speak, but which have got the wherewithal, both
financial and administrative, to determine and
accentuate a new kind of relationship between them and
the art/artists.
 

MTN and Globacom, for example, often tend to claim a
high degree of recognition for and support for the
arts. With its Y’hellofest concerts (another one has
been scheduled for Enugu in October), Y’hello series
on television and the inclusion of a vast repertoire
of Nigeria songs on its system as ring tones; MTN
would sure claim to be partner of the arts.
So would Globacom. For it does seem like King Sunny
Ade’s hit song of the 1980s, my Number, was composed
with the truly Nigerian telecom giant in mind; if you
do not mind the rather long TV commercial that looked
more like a mini concert.
 

And in using top artistes like Richard Mofe-Damijo,
Daddy Showkey and Tony Tetuila to endorse it, Glo
would further drive home the point that it breathes
out the arts. Good enough, but it hardly stops there.
For Globacom, really, its indigenous image and the
posture of a populist provider would have served as a
sufficient platform to show to the world that the arts
could do more for a telecom company than merely
endorsing it. It could actually co-exist with it,
somewhat as a beautiful bride who has been brought
home after a long courtship.
 

Why, for example, has there not been a follow-up to
the intellectually rewarding event like the evening
with WS (Wole Soyinka)? Couldn’t such be a yearly
‘ritual’ where the arts converge an account of Glo? Or
should the deeper art content of the company be
considered gone with the early exit of the officer in
charge, Lola Shoneyin; or that the arts would
continually be subservient to its sister sector,
sports, in the schedules of Globacom?
 

If one considers the relationship between the drums
(remember how Ayangalu used it in Tunde Kelani’s
award-winning film, Saworoide) or the town crier of
old with what sound systems and the microphone do
today; or what the art of divination of old stood for
compared with what television and more recently the
computer does today; or even what the art and customs
of beautification through tribal marks did in the past
with what the screen savers of different mobile
‘hand-sets’ do today or just how each GSM provider
comes across to the consumer, one is bound to realise
that there is a world of similarities between the arts
and technology, especially when the concept of
information art is borne in mind.
There is just so much that could be engaged if closer
attention is paid to the relationship between the two
sectors.
 

How nice would it have been if the areas of art and
culture had been included in the portfolios of MTN
Foundation, an ingeniously brilliant idea of corporate
responsibility? But limiting it, at least for now, to
only Education, Health and Empowerment would not only
be looking down on an area of life that is as
significant as health or education, but would also
amount to disregarding deeper possibilities that ought
to exist between the arts and the sector in which MTN
exists as a seeming leader.
 

Or why would the company had included as a requirement
for the officers that would be considered for the post
of MTN Foundation, a sufficient background in the arts
and film, if not that MTN somehow recognised that
there is a fertile space for a good knowledge of the
art sector in its broad horizon?
Beyond sponsoring a concert that featured the American
singer, Eve, a couple of years ago, Econet Wireless
now V-Mobile has not embraced the arts with serious
enthusiasm. But with its teething problems easing out,
one would expect that the larger platform of the arts
would be considered in repositioning the company.
And it too seems to have a distinct edge. With
interest from three state governments, the pluralism
of cultures represented on its board does seem to make
it a good choice that could reintroduce the annual big
theatre project that the defunct Nigeria Industrial
Development Bank (NIDB) under Chief Rasheed
Gbadamosi’s chairmanship was well celebrated.
 

With one major play promoted in a year, could telecom
companies imagine the kind of mileage that awaits a
sponsor, especially if the right kind of story and
actors are showcased? If huge literature has been
generated in the last three years of GSM in the print
media, coupled with the images and reports, both
solicited and otherwise in the broadcast medium, do
the telecom giants know how much they stand to benefit
in terms of goodwill if they are seen as embracing and
promoting ideas about literary, visual and the
performing arts?
 

When the then Econet Wireless furnished its
subscribers with news headlines and the likes every
morning and got a kudos for that, it must have failed
to think that film, an art exhibition or even a
musical concert could not be similarly relayed to its
numerous and dedicated subscribers.
 

Starcomms might be accused of insensitivity or even
outright insincerity for halting its free weekend
calls between customers on its networks, but with its
recent alliance with Glendora/Jazzhole music in
promoting the elder musician, Fatai Rollin Dollar, one
cannot but raise the thumb for the company.
But the star treatment for the arts should not stop
there, nor should it stop with the thoughtful display
of elegant ladies in traditional attires on its
billboards.
 

No! Starcomms and others in its field, especially the
government owned NITEL and M-Tel should accept that if
they give local artistes/art the opportunity to deploy
IT in the promotion of their works, they would enjoy
more international attention.
 

We know that artists and musicians have always shown
great interest in new tools and techniques; to invent
and explore the unknown lies in the true nature of
art. Today, the computer serves as the most
interesting tool ever.
 

Who says those little pieces of technology –
‘hand-sets’ would not be the next indispensable
technical aid for artists and subscribers in Nigeria?
Think about it, and so long.
 

 More…..

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