Contemporary Art in Nairobi’s Nightlife: Creating hyperreal worlds on Lang’ata road

Authors

  • Fredrick Mbogo The Technical University of Kenya

Keywords:

Hyperreality, ambience, nightlife, performance, space

Abstract

Nairobi’s nightlife comes loaded with an array of suggestions, through created spectacle, about how interaction should take place. This paper is interested in how elements of design in some of Nairobi’s nightclubs define the kind of performance expected of a client within its premises. It focuses on clubs along Nairobi’s Lang’ata road. These clubs, the paper claims, are aware of the kinds of clients whose tastes they hope to successfully provide. At the heart of everything, the ambiance created through the design adapted defines the kind of client. This means that clients are expected to take up roles and perform some kind of identity while within these spaces. On the one hand there are clubs that sell themselves as spaces for sports enthusiasts, others as providers of wild-game experiences with inviting catch phrases as “meet the big five” on their menu, still others will sell themselves as purveyors of urban identity and others as carving out a world of “authentic Africa.” Of interest, in the location that is Lang’ata road, is how these clubs attempt to blend in with the history and landmarks. Along the road, there is a stadium, an airport, schools, a cemetery, two Universities, a military barrack, several malls, a game reserve, a women’s prison, and several housing estates. Lang’ata road is also a place of contests, buildings have been demolished as some land has been said to have been acquired illegally. The nervousness associated with ownership of land, and therefore possible forceful eviction, has affected the way some clubs are built. This has presented interesting opportunities for designers to create interiors that, while appreciating the impermanence of the clubs’ structures they provide illusions within these spaces where clients can “disappear” from threats of that outside world of contests. How design plays a role in creating new worlds that clients can disappear into and momentarily forget their woes is of interest in this paper.

Author Biography

Fredrick Mbogo, The Technical University of Kenya

Teaches in the department of Music and Performing Arts at The Technical University of Kenya. He also writes, directs and acts in plays. His latest appearance is in a one person play A Revolution Ate My Son,an adaptation of Mrs. Shaw,a novel by Mukoma wa Ngugi. This year has also seen a successful run of his play The Dying Need No Shoes at the Kenya National Theatre. He marries his stagecraft with his research interest in the area of aesthetics, particularly in how space is used, what possible meanings it can communicate, and how negotiations of meanings occur depending on contexts. His latest publications include a co-written book with Basil Okong’o and Solomon Waliaula titled Theatre Arts Education: Approaches in Kenya. He holds a PhD from Moi University, Eldoret, and a Masters of Dramatic Arts degree from The University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

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Published

2019-12-23

How to Cite

Mbogo, F. (2019). Contemporary Art in Nairobi’s Nightlife: Creating hyperreal worlds on Lang’ata road. PARALAXE, 6(1), 24–37. Retrieved from https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/paralaxe/article/view/46602