The world was reborn in Kinshasa’s nuclear reactors. While the United Nations sorted through the world’s fractured postwar landscape, Belgium — believing it would hold onto its colonies — began construction of its nuclear facilities in the Congo’s capital city in 1958. Two years later, the country had won its independence and the keys to Africa’s only nuclear reactor. Artist Bodys Isek Kingelez was only 12 at the time; the vision of an African continent firmly in African hands still looked like a beautiful pipe dream.
Today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has fallen into a state of woeful disrepair, besieged by civil war and violence. Somewhat sequestered from the region’s violence, Kinshasa now functions somewhat like an autonomous zone, while its nuclear reactor is now in tatters. Currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art, Bodys Isek Kingelez: City Dreams captures the unflagging optimism that the Congolese artist had for his country, before dying in 2015. It is the museum’s first solo exhibition of an African artist. Expertly curated by Sarah Suzuki, it surveys Kingelez’s vibrantly celebratory “extreme maquettes” as intricate visualizations of an Afrofuturist utopia just beyond the horizon.
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Select Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: PyCon AU 2024 Talks, New Raspberry Pi Gear Available and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey