Digital Nefse

This first-person perspective brings the viewer to the year 1896, into the heart of the cavalry during the Battle of Adwa, a decisive war in which Ethiopia defeated European colonization. As the viewer “wears” this male crown, zewed, through the first-person lens, they experience the psychological weight of the protector. Zewed is an exploration of self-sacrifice — the act of placing the community’s survival above one’s own. The warrior is represented by a black metal bust; atop his head sits a brass crown, a physical twin to the one seen in the digital soul. The crown is custom-forged by Yatreda utilizing the traditional techniques of Ethiopian blacksmiths. By using these ancestral methods, the work carries the memory of the material itself.

Through a first-person perspective, the viewer is invited into the world of the sedea, a communal dance of the Afar people. Choreographed and filmed on location at Erta Ale, one of the most geologically active and hostile environments on Earth, the film captures a delicate balance of celebrating life on the edge of destruction. The physical manifestation of Sedea is a black brass bust, realized through a complex process of lidar photogrammetry and digital sculpting of a female Afar cast member, then forged in metal. Atop the bust is a custom jewelry headpiece designed by Yatreda founder Kiya Tadele, a contemporary reimagining of Afar adornment. The sculpture serves as a permanent anchor for the digital soul, ensuring the digital and physical remain an inseparable whole.

In Ethiopia’s highlands, the Akodama was a male crown, a mark of nobility worn by chieftains and warriors. Forged from silver and draped with cascading chains, it symbolized strength and divine favor. Today, its traces survive only in fragments: very few known examples in museums, and faintly visible in historic paintings and early photographs made at the turn of the century.

The Ethiopian artist collective Yatreda, in collaboration with the master silversmiths of Asprey Studios, resurrects this lost crown not as a replica, but as a reimagining. Twenty-First Century Akodama stands as proof that Ethiopian imagination endures — a revival of form. It extends the lineage of ancient artisans into the language of contemporary art, merging cultural memory with future technology.

In the presentation of the Twenty-First Century Akodama, the physical sculpture is paired with a video artwork shot in the first-person perspective. Together, the silver bust and jewelry bring the vision into tangible form, while the video exists permanently on the blockchain, bridging the physical and digital worlds.