An Approximation of the Mix (2018)

Is it wrong to speculate about the force of gravity?  Is the social force of gravity universal? Could ground and foundation be understood as relational? Is it possible to imagine that this particular natural phenomenon could possess relational qualities that affect our social bodies?

In the performance An Approximation of the Mix I work with the instructions from Luster’s hair product S Curl and the language of critical race theory and physics. I demonstrate a new use of acoustic levitation by sonically suspending my hair and applying S-Curl it. Working with the genealogies of scientific demonstrations, personal narrative, and the grammar of critical race theorists and scientists, I cast myself as the protagonist who performs a scientific demonstration while narrating an intersubjective lived experience allowing for an “approximation of a mix.” The simultaneity of this “mixing” locates temporality and black cultural production through acoustic levitation.