"Kinshasa vs Akihabara" is an art project by Italian artist Giovanni Fredi (born 1984, Brescia). During a six-month sojourn spread over the course of two years, Fredi photographed game players from Tokyo, Japan and Kinshasa, Congo. As you may remeber, we interviewed Fredi for WIRED Italia last May. Here's a key passage:
"WIRED: Can you describe the genesis of your project? What were your goals, both as a reporter and artist? What is your definition of otaku, now that you have experienced this subculture first-hand, so to speak?
Giovanni Fredi: Two years ago, I visited the Democratic Republic of Congo. The last thing I was expecting was to find a Sony PlayStation. It was a surprise to discover such a lively gaming culture in the poorest villages of Congo, to realize that even in that part of the world, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 was everybody's favorite game, to see that even in a place where electricity is erratic at best and short circuits are as common as the rain, someone had found a way to power a console with an home-made generator or by connecting to a lamp post in the street (hacking the system, so to speak). [...] [These kids] invented their own arcades: improvised, built with wood and truck tarpaulins scattered among the labyrinthine alleys of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, Kinshasa. This place is all about scarcity. But also ingenuity. I found only one game available, a nunch of old televisions and a PlayStation covered in mud. And yet, everybody was having such a great time. Such scenario was unreal, yet fascinating.
The jump to Akihabara was for me natural, almost necessary. I wanted to compare-and-contrast the two gaming cultures: Tokyo is gadgetland, the mecca of high-tech, "the world's capital of technology," the kingdom of manga, video games, and otaku. In short, the very antithesis of Kinshasa: this is the land of overabundance. After "isolating" the otaku gene, so to speak, it was relatively easy for me to understand this subculture better. I have documented people between the age of six and sixty playing with their Nintendo DS, people that left their bedrooms and homes to play in a public space. To be alone together, in a sense: they gather around wifi hotspots, feeling the need to be "connected" through invisibile technology and yet separated. My goal was not to come up with a grand theory of otaku culture. I simply wanted to observe them in their natural habitat, talk to them, learn their habits. I stood with my camera in a small square next to a shopping center from 9.30 to 1.30 am, without ever leaving. Ultimately, these gamers are all different and yet they all carry in their backpack spare batteries for the DS. Videogames is their religion" [from "Giovanni Fredi's Kinshasa vs. Akihabara", Matteo Bittanti, WIRED, May 23 2011)
Today "Kinshasa vs. Akihabara" went officially live. Below you can see some examples from both gaming contexts, but to fully appreciate Fredi's work, point you browsers here.
Link: Giovanni Fredi's interview (in Italian)
Link: Kinshasa vs. Akihabara
related: GameFace: The Art of photographing the gamer
Submitted by Matteo Bittanti
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