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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Dear <<empyreans>>,<br>
<br>
just a note in disqualification: I let Johannes's -<br>
<br>
<pre wrap="">black
Maori cultural work</pre>
go without comment because of its implicit irony. Pacific peoples
from the immigrations 3000-4000 years ago from the region which is
now Taiwan tend to be brown. Thinking of blackness, and it can
only be thought, I've met and worked with people (some my best
friends!) who have very dark skin, never black. Did they "want to
be black" like the song goes? or, horrible phrase, <i>identify </i>as
black? ... wouldn't there be the blackness that one chooses and
the blackness one has foisted upon one? a melanin allegiance or
allegation in complete liminality?<br>
<br>
...on Johannes's difficulty sending the list a post using Maori
words: a written language is quite useless in the dark.<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Simon<br>
<br>
On 18/04/16 08:52, Derek Murray wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CADi2OJD9VfzjZvM1q2NT8nQFcPNabXMMpD8xeBP20bAFaBTHhA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
Johannes,
I tend to agree with you and Tommy, however, I think there are many
methodologies and approaches to doing the intellectual and creative
work we all desire. Citational and recursive thinking (what some might
derisively call "intellectualizing") has its place, alongside
formalism, sound, and movement-based arts—which isn't to level them,
or reduce them to generalities. They each have their place and, as
quiet as it's kept, can exist simultaneously without the sky falling.
For me this becomes an issue of whether it's possible to find value in
(or simply respect) ideas and methods that differ from our own. I'm
not speaking about tolerance discourse (i.e. Wendy Brown/Zizek), but
rather, the ability to see the genre and boundary-defining eloquence
in work being done across intellectual and creative approaches. It is
indeed rare, as all forms of cultural production are most often
dominated by genre and disciplinary strictures and dogmas. It is
there, however, if we have the openness to see beyond our respective
veils. I personally resist racial/ethnic essentialism in praxis and
explore the intersections of identity in the work I produce: a gesture
that seeks to break free of a restrictive politics around fictions of
identitarian authenticity. Like all essentialisms, melanin allegiances
(borrowing a term from DJ Spooky) are toxic, and I believe true
intellectual work must be discursive and empathetic to be effective.
Blackness, like all identity-based cultural/political constructs, is
defined by hybridity, contamination, and a certain nebulousness where
there is no truth condition, or authentic expressiveness or pure
embodiment. Liquid blackness is perhaps an unflinching acknowledgement
of this condition, because it confounds and infuriates, even as it
forces us to step out and beyond our prescribed boundaries in thought
and action.
Cheers!
Derek
_______________________________________________
empyre forum
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></pre>
</blockquote>
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