Multidisciplinary artist Mark Mushiva produced ‘Turbo Summation’ in late 2024, a conceptual hip hop album featuring 14 tracks, a music film, a manifesto and a prototype of a wearable electronic hip hop instrument fashioned out of a data glove.

‘Turbo Summation’, written around the themes of cyberpunk, afro-accelerationism and urban subculture, aims to enunciate and make clear the significant linkages between technology and hip hop.  The synopsis of the recently released film is “haunted by the ghosts of colonial after-life, a black engineer longs for connection in a fragmented post-colonial society. He forms a bond with an unlikely person, and together they dream up an escape from an unseen carceral force,” said Mushiva.

“Hip hop has served as a main location of interaction between Black people and technology, rather than simply appropriating Japanese technology by descendants of African slaves. Turbo Summation broadens these concepts by utilising the expressive potential of lyricism and creativity as instruments for speculative worldbuilding. Visions of possible futures through the perspective of electronic music’s fundamental foundation, the synthesiser,” Mushiva said on his website.

He said using 3D speculative worlds constructed in Blender and stylised fictional live-action sequences, the film creates a vision that when experienced with the music, invites audiences to dream of a decolonial future.

Other notable creatives who worked on this film include Kevin Perestrelo and Ericke Tjiueza who were in charge of the styling, Soundtrack Skimmed Milk, music buy Mushiva, editing by Reneir De Bruyn and Esther Beukes as the director. Beukes, reflects on being part of the project, saying when Mushiva contacted her during the Covid-19 pandemic to direct Turbo Summation, she gladly accepted. 

“Working with Mark has been on my creative wish list for a long time. I admire his artistry, his ability to push boundaries, and the intellect he brings to his work. The chance to combine our creative ideas excited me,” she told VIBEZ!

From the outset, they worked closely to shape the script and casting, curating a team of talented creatives who each brought their magic to the project.  She said: “It was a collaborative process in the truest sense, with Mark’s vision as the foundation. My role as director was to interpret and amplify that vision, ensuring that the film seamlessly wove into the larger artistic tapestry he was already crafting.”

Beukes said the result is something she is deeply proud of, a testament to the power of collaboration and shared artistic passion.  “I’m grateful to Mark for entrusting me with this part of his journey and for opening up his creative world to me. At the end of the day, great projects are a sum of the right minds coming together, and Turbo Summation was exactly that,” she indicated.