The Engineer | The Chemist

The Engineer, 2018

The Chemist, 2018

An engineer identifies the problem with a faulty projector to be a weak lens. He tests the strength of the beam as he explains the process in different languages. In the paired video, (The Chemist) a microscope is unboxed as the chemist flips through the multilingual manual. She proceeds to test a sample and a moment of alchemy happens when both look through their instruments & witness the forming of a cloud. This set of videos engage different machines and the different forms languages of instruction can take. They also revisit Cheikh Anta Diop’s call for an organization of scientists of the black world. Souleymane Bachir Diagne while applauding the many advances enabled by Cheikh Anta Diop however counsels, “…a laboratory should not be the territory of a king. By definition, a laboratory is a network that is endlessly open, like science itself; and like science itself, it is meant to survive the exit of any scientist.”