Events
Artist talk
DeForrest Brown Jr. in conversation with Vanessa Fajemisin
February 6, 6pm
Rennie Hall, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
In residence
February 12-15, 2025, 12-5pm
Libby Leshgold Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Taking up residence in the gallery, DeForrest Brown Jr. will set up an open studio context in which he will mix recorded material for Rhythmanalytics—a multi-disciplinary project that is both an album and a book-length publication. For Brown Jr., the gallery becomes an essential part of the recording and mixing process, as his work responds in real time to the spatial constraints and social dynamics of the space.
His open studio will also include a series of charts, maps and timelines created by Brown Jr. and Ting Ding that trace the artist's extensive research into the history of techno that repositions the genre as a unique form of Black musical and cultural production. The residency draws from and expands the artist's 2022 publication Assembling a Black Counter Culture.
Artist talk
DeForrest Brown Jr. in conversation with Giorgio Magnanensi
April 9, 2025, 6pm
Reliance Theatre, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Background
DeForrest Brown, Jr. is an Alabama-raised, rhythmanalyst, writer, musician, and curator. Under the moniker Speaker Music, he channels the African American modernist tradition of rhythm and soul music as an intellectual site and sound of techno-vernacular expression. He has released three albums on Planet Mu; 'Of Desire, Longing' (2019), 'Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry' (2020) and 'Techxodus' (2023). Brown’s debut book ‘Assembling a Black Counter Culture’ was published by Primary Information in 2022.
During Brown Jr’s residency he will share his research into Rhythmanalytics as a work-in-progress, and diagnostic exploration of electronic music at the end of the music industry through applied metaphilosophy and “techno-vernacular expression.” Inspired by his own experiences of reasoning through synesthesia, rhythmanalyst Brown, Jr. seeks to construct a myth-scientific modal logic and studio performance music that embraces cross-disciplinary multitasking.
Research As… is a public program that makes creative research visible. Artists, writers, curators, designers, performers, filmmakers, are invited to engage with ECU and the wider arts community in a series of public programs that present their research practices.