If Toto plays in a desert and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
The power of popular culture can be impressive at times. Making waves from around the world, broadcast through the internet, it is ever changing, with new artifacts of fascination being born and dying every few moments. One such slice of pop culture, the band Toto and their song ‘Africa’, has experienced quite resurrection over the past year (largely due to Weezer’s cover of the iconic song), which has seen the song creep back into the fringe of youth attention, even earning them a slot at Falls Fest 2018/19.
Now, adding to their obscure second wave of popularity, an artist has set up a solar-paneled speaker system that will constantly play ‘Africa’ on repeat, forever. Namibian-German artist Max Siedentopf’s Toto Forever uses six speakers, an MP3 player, and a bit of mother nature to create one of the most meta pieces of art in recent memory.
“I was very intrigued by this and wanted to pay the song the ultimate homage and physically exhibit ‘Africa’ in Africa,” Siedentopf wrote to NPR in the US. “The Namibian desert—which is, with 55 million years, the oldest desert in the world—seemed to be the perfect spot for this.”
Check out the video below of the installation in full swing:
