Conference Paper 
Open Access
Decolonizing Audio Education: A study of engagement events with West African audio engineer, Tupaï N'Gouin
2025 Breaking Barriers in Audio · Paper 7 · March 2025
Abstract
Patrick Arnoud Koffi, also known as Tupa NGouin, is a beatmaker and music producer from Abidjan, Cte d'Ivoire who appeared on-stage at the Audio Engineering Society 155th Convention as part of the Decolonizing Audio Education, panel. Attended by a minority of conference goers, the event was symbolic of the on-going challenges faced by those working to include, celebrate and promote the voices of underrepresented groups within our broader audio engineering community. These challenges include navigating questions around symbolic representation, unconscious bias, cultural competency and structural inequalities. This paper will document the AES event and a closely aligned one-week artist residency at the University of Victoria, during which Tupa worked with students and shared information about his creative practice. Through critical reflection by the organizers and an interview with Tupa, the paper aims to provide others with insight into the challenges and benefits such initiatives have for Western institutions and educational and pedagogical missions. Most importantly, it seeks to communicate the value, benefit, and challenges this type of initiative had for Tupa, our West African colleague. By centering the discussing on the individual, this paper offers a unique resource for Western students, helping them contextualize their experiences and reflect on what they, as the next generation of audio professionals, can do to foster a more inclusive and diverse community of audio engineers. The paper acknowledges that historical and contemporary Western paradigms should not automatically be privileged and advocates for the inclusion and promotion of alternative epistemologies of audio engineering alongside the Western approaches and practices foundational to the AES.
