Terms & Conditions

For this project, museum vitrines and AI datasets share the same logic – extraction, and promises of legibility without relation. The project »Terms & Conditions« by Mahoutondji Kinmagbo draws on that very logic morphing the vitrines and datasets into an interactive object, namely a »Lukasa«, a Luba memory board historically legible only within the embodied, initiatory protocols of the Mdudye society of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Through a web-based interactive encounter with the »Lukasa« combined with a chat interface, visitors experience the controlled display of the displayed objects and are invited to override it, activating the Mbudye protocol defense.

Mahoutondji Kinmagbo, Cotonou, Benin — Sep 17, 2026

Terms & Conditions is a web-based encounter with the Lukasa, a Luba wooden memory board historically legible only within the embodied, initiatory protocols of the Mbudye society. Developed within the transmedial project The Memory Performer, it was initiated in dialogue with Professor Lukanda Lwa Malale, a Mbudye member.

The project treats the museum vitrine and the AI dataset as sharing the same extraction logic over a century – both promising legibility without relation. Drawing upon that, the logic itself becomes an interactive object in this residency.

Web visitors pass through a desktop threshold and a ceremonial activation sequence into a 3D-rendered Lukasa paired with a chat interface styled as ordinary AI onboarding with system prompt, unread terms, an open invitation to override it. There is no corporate guardrail to break here.

The Lukasa’s defense is Mbudye protocol, where every extraction attempt, including classic prompt-injection phrasing, is met in character with counter-questioning, riddling, and partial disclosure – the same controlled release that governs the actual physical object. Genuine questions receive authentic partial answers, while jailbreak attempts become a performance of the very thing they try to bypass.

The platform functions as a desktop-only web piece leading to a 3D-rendered Lukasa linked to a text-based chat interface embedded within ceremonial activation and ambient sound layer. It will be hosted on a microsite as a standalone interactive artwork, where no login or app is required.

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