Models show off hand bags as part of To me, you are Beloved, a collaboration between A Vibe Called Tech and Gucci
A Vibe Called Tech teamed up with Roundtable Journal for To me, you are Beloved in collaboration with Gucci, a photo and essay series designed to capture the multitude and essence of Black British identity, inheritance, and family history and celebrate the Gucci Beloved line of handbags. Image courtesy of A Vibe Called Tech.

10 Questions With… Charlene Prempeh

Charlene Prempeh is the founder of A Vibe Called Tech, a creative agency that explores the intersection of Black creativity, culture, and innovation. The name is a play on hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, referencing the influence of technology on the Black community. Since its inception, the agency has launched a series of creative campaigns with Gucci, partnered with WePresent on a year-long series bringing Black-owned media to the forefront and worked with V&A East on a new creative residency. Currently, Prempeh and her team are helping London’s Whitechapel Gallery with a creative campaign to accompany their new exhibition: “A Century of the Artist’s Studio: 1920-2020.” The project is yet to be revealed but it “interrogates space as a tool for creative freedom,” she says.

Portrait of Charlene Prempeh.
Portrait of Charlene Prempeh. Photography by Taran Wilkhu.

ID: What is your working style?

CP: I worked really hard growing up and I put a lot of energy into my education. I always knew I wanted to excel in what I was doing. I ended up going to Oxford University, which hadn’t been on my radar at all but my tutors sowed the seeds. When I set up the agency, I was working a seven-day week for months on end but I’ve started to realize that breaks are important to renew creative energy. I try to balance the rhythm of my day to be most productive but also make sure I’m spending some time in a valuable and meaningful way beyond work. 

ID: What are your greatest sources of inspiration and where do you seek them out?

CP: There are so many places. I love all of the normal things; reading (libraries!), food, travel etc. I have found recently that engaging with and reading Black-owned media platforms has really fed into our work at A Vibe Called Tech. There are some incredible social media platforms, which we’ve been able to work with, which chronicle the Black experience through history. I’d encourage you to check out @blackarchives.co and @ablackhistoryofart as well as Boy Brother Friend, Plantain Papers, and Citizen Magazine.

the film and photo series called ‘A Place of our Own’ features a young Black couple living free from the everyday weight of external pressures and anxieties
To launch the new Gucci Off The Grid grey colour variation, Gucci and A Vibe Called Tech collaborated on a film and photo series called ‘A Place of our Own’ exploring the relationship between sustainability, design and Black joy. Working with filmmaker, Samona Olanipekun and photographer, Amber Pinkerton, the project depicts a Black couple living free from the everyday weight of external pressures and anxieties. Image courtesy of A Vibe Called Tech.

ID: You have a background in marketing and journalism and still write a column for the Financial Times How To Spend It magazine. How is that useful in terms of running your agency?

CP: I think that my marketing background has helped us reach more audiences and understand how brands can integrate campaigns into their wider marketing. My journalism and writing has helped us with the storytelling element of the platform. I understand why narrative is key to successful projects. My column for the Financial Times, The Kudos Project, has really given me a platform to tell stories about Black entrepreneurs and creatives in an ongoing way. The idea was to encourage people to continue to invest and engage in Black businesses beyond the editorial focus around Black Lives Matter. There are so many amazing brands that are under the radar that I have discussed through the column. 

ID: Tell me how A Vibe Called Tech came about and why you felt there was a need for this kind of agency?

CP: My husband and I were discussing artificial intelligence while on holiday and some of the issues with facial recognition tools not being able to register Black people properly. He said: Wouldn’t it be funny if a science fiction film was made where all the killer robots were out trying to murder humans but they couldn’t kill Black people because the AI didn’t recognize Black faces. The thought that a new technology couldn’t recognize Black skin felt ridiculous. I started to research it further and found out that it wasn’t science fiction at all but was really happening. And there were even more troubling issues, from policing to the judicial systems, how people are employed, marketing and even healthcare. Myself and creative director, Lewis Gilbert, wanted to set up the agency to not only look at these issues but also to make the Black community aware of them and to allow them to advocate for their own communities.

ID: The agency now has two strands, a storytelling one and an awareness-raising one. Can you describe them briefly and explain how they work well together?

CP: A Vibe Called Tech started as a public engagement piece looking at the effects of technology on the Black community. It’s evolved into a platform that looks to create healthy ecosystems for the Black creativity in various spaces. Gilbert and I are now working with brands and institutions to explore storytelling through the lens of the Black experience and Black culture. Black culture has so much richness and the more people engage in Black histories and storytelling, the more the Black community will be considered in society. Both strands very much speak to this idea of how you widen the narratives told about the Black community. And how do you make sure the work that’s coming out of the creative space and technology space is beneficial.

a screen cap from the film IJÓ featuring dancers from the Leap of Dance Academy ballet school in Lagos, Nigeria
Prempeh worked with Gabriel Moses to develop the creative concept for his film IJÓ. Working with the filmmaker they helped to find the right partner for his ambition, 180Studios. The film was then developed into a photography exhibition and monograph. This project centres around the Leap of Dance Academy ballet school in Lagos, Nigeria, championing its dancers, the company and the country as leaders in the arts. Image courtesy of A Vibe Called Tech.

ID: What are some of your most pressing concerns with the way technology and algorithms disproportionately discriminate against people of color? 

CP: Technology in all its guises, from artificial intelligence to social media platforms, has a role to play in helping us end racial injustice. The ways in which tech is used as a tool of oppression are numerous. Some of the racism is really basic—from moderation of racist language on social media platforms to unconscious biases that platforms like Airbnb have inbuilt, which allow Black people to be rejected. Censorship by Big Tech is also very troubling as are the algorithms that dictate how we consume and experience content online. There needs to be a deep analysis into how these algorithms are monitored and designed and an awareness that our online experience is shaped daily by corporate entities.

ID: You are soon going to launch an additional platform called A Vibe Called Tech Health Check. What is it exactly?

CP: There’s this huge growth of new technology and we’re interested in how it’s perpetuating inequalities. The health check is an ongoing conversation with the Black community around their experiences of new technologies and providing information on employment, facial recognition, urban design and health and the biases that exist. It involves asking the right questions and providing the right stimulus to the community. I felt my experience in audience research and insight made me the right person to start this dialogue. The research should be going live in the next couple of months. 

ID: Tech racism isn’t a new or solely internet-based thing, it goes back historically to all tech, such as photography and cinema and beyond.

CP: For me, there has always been this awareness that Black people aren’t being considered when technology is developed and that has persisted throughout time. When you look back to the start of photography and cinematography, in certain lights or with the flash on, you couldn’t capture a Black face. This has real ramifications for the documentation of our history. 

a woman smiles through a reddish orange fabric lifted above her face
A Vibe Called Tech explored the history and significance of Black media in collaboration with WePresent. The collaboration honours and celebrates a Black creative community inspired by tales preserved throughout generations, upholding their value and impact on identity, self-expression, and emerging political consciousness.

ID: What can people do to counter this technological racism?

CP: Talk about the issue, read articles, come to our events—the more people who get behind it visibly, the less the conversation can be swept under the rug. The more we are educated, the more we can understand the issues we’re experiencing and be empowered to change things.

There are some really great organizations—Data 4 Justice and Algorithmic Justice league—who are activists for marginalized communities in tech that are great to support too. 

ID: What do you hope to achieve in the future?

CP: Equity; a new system and an appreciation for the richness of Black culture and histories. We want to create a platform for some of the incredible Black writers, artists, scientists, activists, curators both past and present. We also have a special project coming up with the Whitechapel Gallery this spring (more to be revealed soon!), as well as the evolution of our partnership  with WePresent that we’re super excited about. 

a collage of self portraits of young, international artists and curators whose work celebrates the Black Image
Inspired by the first The North Face x Gucci Collection, A Vibe Called Tech explored the changing nature of the Black image past and present. For this project A Vibe Called Tech commissioned Jazz Grant to capture a series of conversations and self-portraits of young, international artists and curators whose work celebrates the Black Image and its representation in art and society. Image courtesy of A Vibe Called Tech.
Models show off hand bags as part of To me, you are Beloved, a collaboration between A Vibe Called Tech and Gucci
A Vibe Called Tech teamed up with Roundtable Journal for To me, you are Beloved in collaboration with Gucci, a photo and essay series designed to capture the multitude and essence of Black British identity, inheritance, and family history and celebrate the Gucci Beloved line of handbags. Image courtesy of A Vibe Called Tech.
a screen cap from A Vibe Called Tech's collaboration with Julianknxx for Stine Goya’s Copenhagen Fashion Week
A Vibe Called Tech collaborated with Julianknxx to create Stine Goya’s Copenhagen Fashion Week presentation and film of the show. Image courtesy of A Vibe Called Tech.

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