[-empyre-] aesthetics gestalten within and without

[Derek Murray]

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