Makumbi Muleba’s MFA thesis - “Delivering Sustainable Impact to Community Needs in Zambia Through The Catalytic Power of Music,” gauges music's synergetic power in Zambian and Western world communities, using the results as a basis for proposing a solution framework for Zambia. The study shows the potential and impact of music of it's uses: music as pedagogical tool, empowering people through interpersonal relationships, constructing a soundtrack to life, nurturing collaborations within communities, and establishing a sustainable community.
“Delivering Sustainable Impact to Community Needs in Zambia Through the Catalytic Power of Music.”
As part of our collaborations, a multi-sensory exhibition space was created, centered around 9 songs, each representing a different aspect of life in Zambia, in the format of 9 tunnles. Accompanied with visual art work done by Raphael Bahindwa, ( painter, artist, and amazing friend of ours ), which are projected onto the walls and ceiling of the tunnle, together forming a audio-visual experience that tells a story. The 9 tunnles are then connected by a central space, creating an immersive and impactful experience.
The Tunnel:
The desing of the space began with the light tunnels themselves, designed with modularity in mind, these tunnels are infinitely modular and expandable, and can adapt to various exhibition styles and format.
Speakers located in the two sides of the roof provides audio to the tunnel, acoustic foam is placed in between to absorb reverberation. Series of modular LCD panels, installed behind sheets of Plexi-glass. These elements are installed on a lightweight frame made from extruded aluminum channels, and can connect with other modules to make a “tunnel”.
The Structure:
These tunnels are then all connected to a central dome - the main exhibition space, where visitors are encoruaged to roam around and explore different tunnles and experience different stories in the form of songs and visuals.
A massive hole in the dome connects the audience to outside of the exhibition space, the overall floorplan forms the shape of a sun, and aims to create a larger, ethereal experience.
The shape of the sun, acompanied with the hole in the dome, is a play on time and space; The life in Zambia is one of challenge, but is also one of beauty; as time passes the dome changes with it, light is introduced into the space and as night comes along, warm colored light drowns the interior, emulating the colors of the sun itself.