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to start of today we've got a piece from
the obsidian prism Duo here um obsidian
is a visual artist and researcher in
postcolonial theory culture and
education she is taking a black Quantum
AF futurist approach towards tackling
issues of racism cultural appropriation
intersectionality and sustainable Urban
regeneration by drawing on an image of a
global black
cultures prison is a musician and visual
artist specializing in Rainbow golf
sound design and crafting analog Double
Exposure captures she is based in Berlin
and responds to the inspiration of
memory saturation and the dream world
the text to their piece bird Clock Opera
with texts from Days of the Week were
originally written as a part of a
revision of the homic of to demer a
revision which broadens the picture of
black women who are descendant of
descendant of global of colonial
enslavement the underlying track is a
piece based on the sounds of childhood
as remembered and incorporated into this
collaborative
soundscape hello we are prism obsidian a
visual arts meets sound design duo in
Berlin who composed a piece for radio
play the texts for this piece were
originally written by obsidian as a
partial revision of the homeric IM to
demer a revision which broadens the
picture of black women who are
descendant of colonial
enslavement a dialogue based on the
contrast of artemis's power an agency
over her body compared to women who have
been unsafe for
Generations women who carry these wounds
as warnings and a call out for
accountability the underlying track
called zir cathan's Debut a bird Clock
Opera is a piece written by Prism based
on the sounds of childhood as remembered
and incorporated in into this
collaborative
soundscape obsidian is a visual artist
and researcher in postcolonial theology
culture and education she is taking a
black Quantum afrofuturist approach
towards tackling issues of racism
cultural appropriation
intersectionality and sustainable Urban
regeneration by drawing on an image of
global black
cultures prism is a musician and a
visual artist specializing in Rainbow
God sound design and crafting analog
Double Exposure captures she responds to
the inspiration of memory saturation and
the dream world the following reading
begins with razan blage a text written
by Haitian American Anthropologist Dr
Gina Athena ulissi then we move on to
the three pieces written by obsidian
please
enjoy
[Music]
a
resist the impulse to
[Music]
translate pronounce it
[Music]
[Applause]
first think consciously of the
sound let the arch of the arm roll over
the
ey that automatically depresses the
tongue allow the H allow the in the s in
the
F that will culminate the front of the
[Music]
tee
to entice the jaw to drop for the on
sound while UNS smacking the lips will
Propel the blur surrounding the
depressed
a again ending with
j
play with its
Contours know what this word feels like
in your
[Music]
mouth in haian cray three
syllables
[Music]
raon
blush rise on BL rise on BL r on
[Music]
BL resist the impulse to translate
resist the impulse to translate resist
the impulse to translate resist the
Imp
[Laughter]
[Music]
yes
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
oh
[Music]
a
[Music]
hello and thank you for listening today
[Music]
we are prism
[Music]
obsidian I'm the prison
component I provide the images and
soundscapes underneath the words that
obsidian
[Music]
speaks what you just heard came from a
text written by Haitian American
Anthropologist Dr Gina Athena ulissi but
read by
obsidian obsidian is a postc colonial
researcher who will now read auto
ethnographical
[Music]
pros
[Music]
he
[Music]
a
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
the hounds of
acan the city Athens was the epicenter
of
life art literature philosophy and
democracy flourished here in
Athens philosophers such as Socrates and
Plato bided here as did
playwrights such as sofocles and
Ides
Athens like all Greek cities marked the
boundaries between the realm of humans
and the
Divine there was no need to stray or
risk venturing
further the uncertainty of returning
from potentially non-existent linal
spaces was not to be
risked in so doing
Crossing one risked the displeasure of
the
Gods the human attempts at Conquering
the Wilderness were considered an
attempt at Waring with the
gods the wi Hunter views the forest with
the wary respect of a worthy
adversary as an opponent the forest
threatens the Hunter's livelihood and
potentially wields the capacity to
threaten mortality through the dangers
of the
hunt the hunter acan fell prey to the
deadly mythical forces which inhabited
the for
[Music]
Forest artamis is the
Virgin an ancient Athenian myth and
religion artamus is the goddess of the
hunt the Wilderness wild animals the
moon and of Chastity
childbirth and
Midwifery artamus is a daughter of Zeus
and Leto a twin to the god Apollo
and in so being she is beyond the mert
of the goddess
Aphrodite an ancient Athenian mythology
and religion Aphrodite is the goddess
associated with
beauty love passion pleasure and
procreation artamis both punishes for
the loss of
Chastity whilst also according to
hippitus being known to relieve the
Pains of laboring women in
[Music]
childbirth her Eternal virginity is
honored by the adornment of her
crown consisting of untouched flowers
from the meadow nurtured by water that
is as pure as
she artamus is also also the goddess of
the hunt and the Mistress of wild
Untamed
[Music]
nature acan had been
warned all of humanity had been warned
against the Wilds of
nature action's ruin like that of daas
was caused by ignorance resulting from
credulity
credulity which came largely from an
inborn natural
trait which was governed by the
universal human psychological
characteristic of neglecting the
unfavorable possibility and relying on
the favorable
one in his youthful
exuberance and possible
arrogance acan wandered far from home
far from home far from the bounds of the
city's protective Gates beyond the gates
of the city acan continued farther a
field Beyond The Farms the pastures and
the Prairies were the animals grazed and
sustenance for the city was provided for
action continued onwards towards the
wild darkness of the
woods despite the
warnings acan scorned the superstitious
prohibitions against the woods and
entered lured onwards by the sounds of
the nymphs and the smell of water for
his hounds acan pushed
forward would you drink it if she lead
you to that blue
water the thickness of the forest closed
in around him as he moved deeper and
deeper into the
[Music]
wood what led toera fedra and edus to
their fatal choices and critical
moments was it unrestrained passion or
the Restless Earth urge of
desires it was rather the universal
human weakness of believing what seem to
be facts not so much because they are
demonstrably true as because we want to
believe
them was this Os or the same impulse
which led actium to his
ruin
to the minds of the ancient Greeks the
moment acan left the safety of the
city's walls he was courting
danger when action Came Upon the goddess
artamis and her nymphs he incured her
wild
Fury aramis's rage at the Arron of acan
mortal intrud I upon the realm of the
Divine did not go
unpunished as aramis's stature Rose in
view of her Fury at being spied upon by
lustful hum
eyes acan took
flight as he ran through the thick brush
of the
forest the bones of his body fell apart
and GRE GRE back together again not as a
human but in the form of a
stag with antlers through his skull and
the voice of a beast he alerted his 50
hounds to the presence of the
hunted the excitement of the hunt
quickened throughout the
path actium is
transformed the laws of democracy order
and civiliz ation were transposed with
the unknown tenuous ons of the
wild this realm was beyond his
control his hounds no longer knew the
scent of their
Master their loyalty was replaced with
the call to the
hunt the hounds of acan descended upon
their
master and devoured him
this was not the viciousness of
nature it was divine
[Music]
order
[Music]
y
[Music]
n
[Music]
Tuesday's Child is full of grace
Mornings in the morning I'd get myself
to school either from the bus stomp up
the B dend around the corner from the
house or I leave by way of the porch
Daddy and I had built together that
first Summer of the Chrysler
LS that must have been the summer of
1900 and I don't know what it was the
same summer that the neighbors gave me a
pair of roller
skates the ones with which I ruined the
only pair of jeans I'd ever been allowed
to wear we don't wear that kind of
pants that was why Mama must have let me
skate up and down the street and
them every time I fell it was near some
part of pavement where tar was bubbling
up in the hot humid 100 plus de air when
I fell I'd sometimes lie myself flat out
on my belly and stare at the tiny Mounds
until they heated up with enough gas to
Bubble when the bubble arose I'd press
it back into the thick sludgy stream of
[Music]
tar up and down I went all
day until I'd learned to skate
properly and those jeans were covered in
tar they were
ruined tar could not enter the washing
machine the jeans could no longer be
disgracefully worn although Mama bragged
to everyone about how I wouldn't stop
skating that day until I'd learned how
to do it well enough to do a
[Music]
figure8 often Daddy brought us younger
ones with him when he went wandering off
on his
own [ __ ] says that he must have known
that there was something wrong with
Mama he followed the signs no when the
occasion had arrived when it was unwise
to leave me alone with
Mama now that I am older I noticed that
there were many tasks I saw my daddy
perform that the other fathers never did
at church at home and around town he
often spoke of the roles and
responsibilities which were appropriate
to men versus women but at home he often
performed performed his as well as
mother's
[Music]
duties during the summer of I can't
remember when Daddy had nothing else to
do so when we'd have enough gas money to
drive to the store instead of
walking we'd go by the
junkyard for weeks we spent the better
part of our days Gathering up the scrap
Lumber as it came
in Sunny Daddy and I
would fill up the back and top rack of
that old station wagon with random bits
of
lumber the junkyard was out in little
Africa where the roads were tricky and
winding sometimes Daddy had to drive so
slowly when the car was weighed down
extra
heavy he let me run alongside the path
down the hill picking flowers throwing
stones hopping on one leg to see how
long it took me to get
tired once we left little Africa the
roads were paved properly and he could
drive at a normal speed so I'd have to
climb a top of the lumber that had found
itself all the way up to where I was
meant to be seated and excuse myself as
I would a tree if I had accidentally HD
it stepped on its roots or broken off a
branch in
haste stripping these randomly assorted
planks back to their Essence became a
labor of love and devotion for
us daddy said we'd have to protect the
wood now it was weak sensing that the
tree might be lonely for its leaves I
suggested we paint it
green the bits that were fire damaged he
let me burn some more so I could have
charcoal to draw
with I held things in place or used the
Hammer as we fixed a porch off the back
of the kitchen door some mornings
particularly in the
spring daydreaming got the better of me
as I sat at the window looking out at
how the trees shook when a flock of
birds took flight or how the light
changed a passer by's reflection and a
window or puddle those days I'd miss the
big yellow schull
bus I had to time it carefully to get
things just
right just right meant that I'd not have
to stand at the bus stop with the other
kids or to miss it all together if I had
to stand with them for more than a few
breaths they'd replace my name with the
N word or I'd get poked or made fun of
for my hand me- down clothes or for
talking like the folks in little Africa
even though I didn't mama would not
allow that I never spoke they had no
idea what my voice sounded like if
they'd known me they'd have heard
language that was spoken on the news or
public broadcasting
TV some mornings I missed the bus
because I was was undecided as to
whether this was a good day to be at
school or
not some days I just sit there looking
out the window all day until my older
siblings came home from school and threw
me out of doors into the fresh air and
wanderings but some days I was
indecisive because the Greek goddess SEL
had invited psyche in to sprinkle my
thoughts with a healthy dose of
abania rendering me pathologically
indecisive these mornings i' Chang my
mind after the bus had already done bin
and gone I'd race through the kitchen
across the porch down the stairs and
across the backyard towards the fence by
the apple trees and the farmer's Orchard
behind the house climb the fence and
make my way towards the brook leading
into the deep dark depths of the forest
we were warned
against in the forest I was free to
Ram but that stopped once I began to see
what waited there for others beneath the
canopy of the
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
trees
[Music]
he
[Music]
hey
[Music]
hey
[Music]
a
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
n
[Music]
once upon a time I liked Wednesday
afternoons sometimes on Monday
afternoons my sister would walk over to
pick me up from school we used to like
walking home together we liked it until
the forest changed for her now there is
a Prohibition against the
forest but there has never been any
mention of
why but I do know why although I can
never
say I know why because I saw it happen
once one Wednesday afternoon when I was
not meant to be
looking I don't remember all of it but
it began with a conversation about the
Babylonian King
Nebuchadnezzar and the Quest for his
soul depart from this man you cannot
lead him astray he is an enemy to you
and to those who follow you and love
what you desire for behold the vesture
which in heaven was formerly yours has
been set aside for him and the mortality
which was his has been transferred to
you this is from The Apocalypse of
Abraham
[Music]
I liked these stories at the heart of
them there was a truth which the Bible
as I was being taught it was clearly
lacking these were about real people in
real places like Sumer and
Babylonia Nebuchadnezzar had a dream a
dream which read like my sister's mad
Visions 10
thus were the vision of mine head in my
bed I saw and behold a tree in the midst
of the earth and the height thereof was
great 11 the tree grew and was strong
all and the height thereof reached unto
Heaven and the sight thereof to the end
of the Earth 12 the leaves thereof were
fair and the fruit thereof much
and in it was meat for
all the beasts of the field had Shadow
under it and the fowls of the heaven
dwelt in the boughs
thereof All Flesh was fed of
it
13 I saw in the visions of my head upon
my bed and behold a watcher and an Holy
One came down from
heaven
my sister spoke these words to me from
The Book of
Daniel as she shed before it to climb to
the highest Heights of the maple
tree in this realm of the Sacred virgin
[ __ ] had the Keen sense of hearing
reserved for the true
Huntress I barely heard the whoosh of
The Parting leaves as the hounds
approached as aramus must have sensed
the approach of
acan so too did my sister respond to the
change in our
surroundings as the hounds
neared my sister now with the imagined
stature of
artes then reminded me not to
look and to wrap my body with leaves as
Eve had once hid in her nakedness from
God In the Garden of
Eden
seven and the eyes of them both were
opened and they knew that they were
naked and they seed figleaves together
and made themselves
aprons
eight and they heard the voice of the
Lord God Walking In The Garden in the
cool of the day and Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord God amongst the Trees of the
garden nine and the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him where art
[Music]
thou I asked her if she would say it
exactly as I had just recited my proudly
remembered
scripture [ __ ] glare dismissively at
me it scared me when she got like
this as I quickly shied away hurt that I
had not been praised for promptly
calling forth and applying months of
memorized
verses I knew I be left to myself with
no one to play with
tonight she told me not to look until
she called for me and we would carry
onwards towards
home Mama and Daddy spoke of there being
strange fruit in the woods when they
were
children
T like the ground I skated
on but I had only seen it hanging in
postcard
images because of our tamies virgins are
safe in the
wood why then was my sister not
safe in the daylight the danger is not
spying Upon Our tamies and her
nymphs it's the other
children
I am not the only one for whom
conventions meant
nothing yet unlike
me these other children's Natures were
as vicious and blind when set free in
the
wild as the hounds of action had been in
the heat of their hunting their
Master these children were not
innocent they were
[Music]
violent from my hidden Birds ey view
within the maple tree I saw them become
aware of the scent of prey and fear and
prance
forward some sprang to the chase others
stopped
[Music]
methodically my sister had called them
to the hunt with the scent of her
fear she ran her feet as light as the
wind on Autumn's
leaves finally when they were upon her
it
[Music]
began one after the other the hounds of
acan ravaged my
sister and she in turn slipped more
deeply into the dream just like
[Music]
P
this marks the conclusion of the trilogy
so thank you for listening so far now we
will give a short talk about the context
and meaning behind obsidian's
pieces so the first piece the hounds of
action you say human attempts at
Conquering the wilderness were
considered an attempt at Waring with the
gods now I know from working with you
that one of the themes you discuss
heavily is
decolonization is it accurate to say
that this quote about humans Waring with
the gods touches on the
subject
colonialization
is a war
between
resources material
s and human
labor for the benefit of a small
percentage
financially in the process of colonizing
we've
created a great
environmental social and spiritual
deficit which is the same as Waring
Against The
Gods wow okay one of the other things
that stands out to me in that piece is
the contrast between the Greek myth and
the story you tell about your
sister artemis's rage at the
Arron artemis's rage at the affronter of
aran's mortal intrusion upon the realm
of the Divine did not go
unpunished there was no god or goddess
to come in and save your
sister how in the modern world would you
like there to be punish for the
metaphorical
hounds just normal legal action due
course for inappropriate
behavior
and
taking our rights as those embodied in
black female bodies seriously as
seriously as those who perpetrate
against us whatever their gender or
race that's all I
ask yeah it seems pretty fair but
definitely not obvious
unfortunately not obvious and
also unpredictable as to when one has
stepped
into an urban Treehouse full of woods
metaphors and Woods
Wisdom
it is
unexpected to experience violations
which go
unanswered yeah you can't always protect
yourself all the time that's
exhausting you cannot yet when we think
colonially
mhm my
ancestors have been doing that for
hundreds of
years of americ American
enslavement uh Jim Crow new Jim
Crow so I guess you can and I think you
can even turn it into an art form but
the damage is
great the damage is too much but you can
I think you can do
anything so I think that touches on
something else uh the concept of divine
order I remember you saying this was not
the viciousness of nature it was divine
order you said that that was a line
written on sarcasm can you talk more
about that oh
yeah my uh my little jokes are peppered
throughout the text and this is one of
my
favorites this was not the viciousness
of nature it was divine order well which
would be vicious divine
order allowed that peoples on the
African continent who were not
Christians could be
enslaved that was literally an order
from the church justifying Colonial
justifying Colonial
enslavement nature will have a forest
fire which will put itself out over time
Colonial enslave
if your mother is a slave you're born a
slave sometimes it can be so
frustrating to note these things that a
little bit of humor really helps me get
through creating these types of
texts yeah it makes me think about um
learning the concept of manifest destiny
in my own um upbringing um we're both
Americans we're both from the United
States and both Southerners technically
yep and I just remember that that was
hammered in my head that it would
provide the justification for what the
colonizers did in the US to make the
land theirs and this
is not exactly the same thing but close
and how I was always just
like that's incredible that there needed
to be some sort of justification you
know like why did they get to be so
entitled it was a legal
Trail it
was an incredibly clever device that we
have known for hundreds of years is an
effective way of colonizing peoples it's
the reason why despite the end of
enslavement in many African
nations all of the land all of the
resources are owned by former Colonials
pieces of paper have a lot of power
although they're made of the wood that
the forest can burn down at any point
with enough
kindling
wow when you put it that way it just
seems like maybe we should do some
burning um
is this why we're Anonymous yes this is
why we're
Anonymous um the next piece we're going
to talk about is
mornings and I want to touch on the
pants topic when you say we don't wear
that kind of
pants
um can you talk about like who is the
Wii in this and the kind of pants is
jeans why don't we wear these kind of
pants little girl jeans with butterflies
embroidered on the
seats it's not
modest it's drawing attention
to the young female body in a way that
one would draw attention to an adult
female's
body it's the same cut it's the same
style it's the same politics
for a grown woman on a child's
body the innocence of a child is
something that should be protected the
innocence of a girl child is something
that in our part of the
world has not been protected very well
for a long
time so in my mother's idea of what was
right and
wrong things that make a
child look like a woman are
wrong and so I don't know if it was her
way around it was to let me have them
and let me learn how to roller skate at
the same time on a hot sunny day with
dripping tar mhm
but it replaced the desire
to skip
childhood with an accomplishment and
memory that still makes me twirl around
the room like a butterfly when I think
about roller skating in the summer or
hot bubbling tar and laying on my belly
and pressing the bubbles
down that's a really nice
memory and I'm thinking about how
different our childhoods
were
um I did have an opportunity to be on
Wheels but not on roller skates cuz I
lived on top of a hill I would always be
riding my
bike right but I didn't have an issue of
pants growing up um mostly because I
went to a private school where the girls
weren't even allowed to wear pants we
had to wear kilts and jumpers and the
boys were the ones that got to wear the
pants so I didn't I think my childhood
would have been different if um this had
been a conversation about what I was
allowed to wear versus what I was not
allowed to wear because when I wasn't in
school and I was playing my mom
encouraged me to choose whatever it was
that I wanted so individuality was
really important because I didn't have
the opportunity to be an individual when
I was wearing uniform which was supposed
to you
know stop conflicts yeah I was supposed
to say that like okay you know there
might be some income bracket differences
at the school but I didn't doing it I
mean that didn't do it like there were
still differently ways to
tell and the distraction of clothing oh
yeah but but I think that our mothers
had some of the same restrictions put on
them by Society my mother's concern was
my not being sexualized because we've
been sexualized for so long my mother
was also really concerned with being an
active part in shaping me because there
were so many stronger influences than
you know this tiny 5 foot3
woman coming my way mhm um and your
mother had a different fight based on
where she came from and the scars that
it left so it had to be tackled
differently even Beyond race
yeah well I mean I was always going to
be a weirdo she kind of knew that um and
so I think that's why she encouraged me
to be individualistic even with my
clothing Choice cuz she knew that to
stifle that I would just probably end
up um way worse than dealing with the
conflict early on like recognizing that
you might end up not having any friends
at this private school but you will be
educated um but you need to make that
decision now you know like what do you
do when you get made fun of you know do
you end up being just like them or do
you end up being
yourself so but yeah
yeah
um this other thing you spoke of about
your father's roles I thought was really
interesting when he said at church at
home and around town he often spoke the
roles and responsibilities which were
appropriate for men versus women but at
home he often performed his as well as
Mama's
duties why why did he do
this
um
I think
that part of our safety in
community definitely goes back to
Colonial
enslavement and the church
had several
functions one function was it helped
abolish Colonial enslavement in the US
another function
was it helped colonize us it replaced
our indigenous beliefs and ancestral
beliefs with the colonizers and we had
to obey and conform to these as part of
the act of removing our pasts and making
us
malleable
um but then
following the Abol M of slavery the
church was still quite important because
we weren't safe we needed a community
and that was the structure under which
our political
movements were
run and
uh so I think especially men in my
father's
generation you know he's in his 80s MH
were very much aware of the rhetoric
that they needed to recite no matter
what the situation was
because they also knew that very few
people were really looking at us like we
we see in another one of my short pieces
that my skin had gone red I was going an
anaphylactic shock and the nurse just
wasn't really looking or thinking enough
at what does red look like on brown red
skin mm so if he's saying the words
people are going to be assuming that
that's how things
are but it wasn't we didn't have the
same gender rules we didn't have the
same gender expectations and my mother
was often
unwell mentally and that played out
physically for her and my father picked
up the
pieces yeah you do say in another piece
like how strong the love was between
your
parents yeah it was
repulsive I mean oh like things like my
father standing up and you know saying
oh yes thank you to the lovely blah blah
blah and reference to my mother like
absolute
adoration you know he dresses her grave
so passionately and delicately and with
so much flare and
style that yeah they were really in love
with one
another it was
repulsive yeah but I mean that can give
you such a foundation of what family
means yes absolutely family and
Community like their love for one
another I think was matched by their
commitment to their roles in the
community and dragging us around with
them I mean it's often spoken upon in
this European and British context that I
live in that um I keep a pretty tight
Community I was raised with that I don't
know anything else if if these are your
people these are your people you have to
look after make
sure they know that you're thinking
about them and if any opportunities
arise make sure that they're the very
first to receive them this is what you
do if someone's not well you take care
of them if someone's happy you celebrate
with them
mhm and I think that kind of love that
he had for her was based on coming from
a community where that was always a
given speaking of community you talk
about a place is called little Africa so
is that a name that
was labeled with resentment or with
pride or yeah talk to me about little
Africa well the black community did not
name it little Africa
right but yet it's still
used yes and there was a pretty thick
indigenous population up there and then
there was a lot of
poor pwt as
we you can look that up we're not going
to say it um but um yeah it was
considered little Africa long winding
roads Jungle of
trees and we just kind of appropriated
it you know just like the
nword which has become a
multibillion dollar a year
industry black folks have a way of kind
of running with the insults and playing
with them and rhyming with them and
saying well what can we do with
this so yeah little Africa was
potentially a place of
shame but it was transformed it was a
lovely place to be a little girl
H yeah and um speaking again of being a
little girl and choosing where to go
um so when you're talking about okay so
this quote for example um but some days
I was indecisive because the Greek
goddess Selene had invited psyche in to
sprinkle my thoughts with a healthy dose
of abalam mania rendering me
pathologically indecisive these mornings
I changed my mind after the bus had
already done B and gone I'd race through
the kitchen across the porch down the
stairs and across the backyard towards
the fence by by the apple trees and the
farmers's orchard behind the house climb
the fence and make my way towards the
brook leading into the deep dark depths
of the forest we were warned against in
the forest I was free to roam but that
stopped once I began to see what waited
for others beneath the canopy of the
trees so this whole concept struck me
because Tru Andy like me as a white
person you know if I didn't go to school
I would be punished your education was
important to
society God that's so tragic
I was meant for jail prostitution drug
dealing or to
be what a cracko I mean like you know
the lower stage of
prostitution
yes
um my parents I mean my father left
education before the age of 11 and when
it was crop time there was no
consideration of going to school so
being a
Texan if there was some kind of athletic
event they'd want all of the uh the
[ __ ] from the Farms to come in and
show their talented skills to help the
team win but they could go back to the
fields other than that nobody cared
about their
educations my mother went to uh Catholic
schools so she had a quite strict
educational
upbringing but also she had quite a
distant mother mhm uh
my grandmother was not all that well so
no one was really looking after my
mother's education and I have the
feeling that my mother probably
approached her education the same way
that I did as maybe it's a good day
today maybe it's not a good day and
sometimes oh oops Yeah but I better go
and find a way of making it magical like
you know traing through the
forest um my
treny was also my way of managing the
damage
mhm I experienced so much racialized
violence sexual exp
exploitation exclusion mhm in school it
wasn't something I could really do on a
daily basis even as a child who had
incredibly tough skin because of racial
situations I couldn't do that more than
three times on the average week and if I
did do it more than three times it was
because I just spent the whole day in
the
library it wasn't until I was a teenager
and I was no longer truant alone that it
became a problem uh and I was I was
Trent with white kids whose parents
assumed that I was what was poisoning
their children yeah because there's no
way that their special privileged
children could ever have been truin on
their own no not not the rich kids I was
hanging out with yeah who really taught
me the ropes of the best way to spend a
truant day it was delightful I had
friends and we were going to museums in
the zoo where I could draw all day it
was fantastic I loved
it so and now we're getting
to the section um raped raped and um you
go so actually you take Great Lengths to
not make it graphic and I think if
people weren't listening closely enough
they may have missed what happened cuz
you describe it I hate to say it but
beautifully thank you I know but it's
it's you know it's I know that's what
what you do too like you take something
dark and you try to transform
it um so when you say my sister now the
imagined stature of Artemis then
reminded me not to look and to wrap my
body with leaves as Eve had once hidden
her nakedness from God In the Garden of
Eden this is a stark difference between
you and your sister here um your sister
is asking for God for help but you're
watching a myth unfold before you what
what do you thinking in this
instance I have spent a large portion of
my life inside a magical realism that's
fairly unbreakable mhm and that
definitely began in
childhood I grew up going to church five
times a week like my upbringing was
strict I still can remember all the
books of the Bible and who wrote them
Etc
but already as a child when I received
this copy of man the myth maker it was a
little more pal able and digestible it
was something that I could could make
more sense of MH it was much more
organic and it wasn't as
vengeful it was pretty vengeful
but you know potato potato kind
of
um and I think my sister
understood well I I think you have
different types of people in the black
community for how we handle trauma my
sister understood that assimilation was
a great way I like you was just way too
much of a weirdo to ever
assimilate you
know
so that wasn't an option what was an
option was really diving into my magical
realism and also to stay connected to my
family and to my siblings especially
because there were so many moments like
these I had to find a way
to
soften the
harshness of what it meant to be
Eve in this
instance
um and so I don't think I was really
thinking anything I I think that um
as you know I'm a bit slow to process
emotions I have a cognitive process I'm
neurod Divergent and I have a cognitive
process that sometimes might have me
snapping 6 months later about something
someone said to me and you'll be like
yeah that was really bad as if it had
happened yesterday because you're used
to it MH but um when I wrote this piece
when I wrote this Trilogy I wrote it a
couple of hours it was really fast and
then I maybe edited it once or twice
before it was
published and then I never looked at it
again until we were doing the radio show
and I was like oh this is great we can
do this with the bird clock and blah
blah blah not really thinking about well
I'm handing you some audio from walks in
nature around the farm you're taking
your sacred bird clock and we're putting
it together to talk about rape yeah it
didn't dawn on me until I was devastated
after we did the readings oh yeah and
it's funny cuz I remember when we got to
this section you know and I'm doing the
sound design for this sitting there
thinking is it really appropriate that
I've got this four on the floor house
beat underneath it you know like it's
the it's it's the culmination and so I I
remember cuz the original piece it does
get really Dancy so I'm like what I need
Ste that Rhythm but I don't want to be
like disrespectful of the moment but I'm
like no but it's also really intense yes
and it's dogs it's a pack of hounds
there is a beat yeah there is a pulse
this is the pulse of life it's the pulse
of Life flowing
out it's the cruelest death possible
really and I feel like that absolutely
appropriate it it brought
them I I don't want call it marryt of
these boy children these boy young boy
rapists I I would I wouldn't call them
Mary
but it's something
adjacent to that you know this is a
party for them they're on the hunt oh
yeah and and you
know rape happens all the time with
other animals too like it's it's unfort
it's a part of nature as well
absolutely absolutely and what shocks me
and surprises me is that I've heard
people talk more about Swan rape than
the rape of black girls by white
children which is still quite a
thing yeah but you know I think that
makes some people too uncomfortable to
talk about so they replace that with
something that we can supposedly all
agree upon that you know oh animal rape
is so evil and so bad and it's like but
we do it ourselves too yeah yeah I think
in not being graphic in my depiction i s
Stu I couldn't I could never be graphic
about this that would just be it would
kill me it would be impossible and I
think that it would reduce the peace to
something that could be exploited in a
way that I would just find horrific
mhm so the last thing we're going to
talk about um is the concept of safety
and virginity when you say because of
Artemis virgins are safe in the wood but
um are they and why are some safe and
not
others um
yeah again that's ironic sarcasm mhm um
but there's also a bit of Truth in it
yes there are virgins who were safe in
the
forest um when my children were going to
the Rudolph Steiner School and they'd go
do their stupid P rythmic [ __ ] out in
the forest and you know everybody's safe
and in love with the trees and I would
just be like I'm not going in there you
know there's no way those kids are safe
it's their mythology that it's a safe
place you know it's their Lord of the
Rings where the ants come out to save
the planet you know
it's it's safe for
them and any other conversation they're
not going to
hear
so for me it's never been
safe for me those moments
of pauses and treny where better jump
out the back porch and run through the
forest to take the shortcut to
school that's a a lost memory of a time
that even now I don't think I would go
into an unknown wood
alone or necessarily with a group
because their experience of
safety often has the potential to make
my life unsafe by their inability to see
the dangers mhm and
their inability to stand up and protect
me if those dangers do me
harm
okay wow thank you for the the heaviness
and thank you for the rainbow
God yeah um thank you for your
informative answers that's all I have
for you today thank you very much if
anyone has any questions now would be
the time to ask them welcome back for
the
Q&A so I have I have a few questions for
you so first of all what what inspired
you to to create this piece of art can
you tell us a little bit about about the
process of how it how it came to
be oh sorry let me let me say that again
um
so let let me let me ask you about about
uh the process um and what what inspired
you how how did this piece amazing piece
of art come to
be yeah sure I can answer that question
um so I'm
prism and uh I'm speaking on behalf of
obsidian right now who is driving to a
very important appointment um how this
process happened was I've been working
with obsidian for some years now um I'm
the primary documenter on some of her
other projects and she does a lot of
things and one of them is right and
she's a prolific writer and I'm a
prolific musician um she mentioned a
long time ago like two years ago that
she had been looking for somebody to
create soundscapes underneath what she
writes because her texts are really
vulnerable honest and you know she deals
with traumatic topics and in order to
have a soundscape that can match the
weight of the things that she says it's
a really delicate process and I don't
know having a good musical collaboration
is kind of like having a good
relationship with somebody I mean it's
it's kind of the same thing like it's
really intimate
and um it happened really organically um
there was a call out on the female
pressure Network which was basically
like we're looking for pieces for radio
and
obsidian knew that I had already written
this piece called the bird Clock Opera
which at that time was only 23 minutes
long only 23 minutes um and she said
that we should I I told her about this
because we're always looking to work
together right and I told her about this
call and she said well why don't we use
that piece and so I started working on
it like crazy uh because we had a
deadline of only about I think two weeks
before it could could be submitted and
so I recorded her reading the texts that
she's already written she wrote them
years ago and then I reappropriated the
piece to fit the mood and the pacing to
some of the things that she was saying
so I hope that answers the question
enough it it does um so together with
the with the um audio piece that that we
have just shown uh we also showed that
slide with uh two images uh can you can
you tell us I think you took those
Double Exposure images right yes can you
can you tell us a bit more about that
because that sounds extremely
interesting a thank you um I've been in
analog photographer for about 13
years and I use a mamia c330 I can bring
it over I always have
it oh
no
so this
camera is what I used to create it uh
actually both the images it's a medium
format camera
exactly and uh I the the the black and
white photo for example is actually a
triple exposure it was an accident I
wanted it just to be a double exposure
uh but this camera is getting old and so
sometimes I make triples by accident
um but the color really nicely though
thank
you and I I was it it accidentally
mirrored the image of obsidian that was
a very planned shot that was when we
were doing some of the recordings
because we needed to generate
promotional material and so I took the
photo of the disco ball in a basement
first and then I placed her from memory
in the same frame when I moved the
camera over to take the second exposure
so I've been doing double exposures yeah
for like 12 or 13 years when I first got
started and it's pretty much my
obsession it hasn't
stopped it it sounds pretty tough to to
line stuff up then you just go by memory
do you just take single single shot at
it or do you like give each each picture
two or three attempts before you like
move on to like get it right in camera
and so if I miss it then I try again uh
I had extensive practice with a
photographic project from 2013 2014
where it was all about double exposures
and black and white and some of those I
shot three times and as long as you
really have a good memory of where you
um created the first exposure versus the
second exposure you know if you take the
images consecutively it could be
relatively easy the difficulty is when
you have an exposure in your camera
waiting for like a day or two and you
don't remember but in general I have a
pretty solid approach of like how I
compose things I can't emphasize enough
to you how many pictures I've taken of
my life ever since I got yeah obsessed
with analog
photography out of out of curiosity do
you develop the the images yourself or
do you uh
just uh do you get them developed a good
question because um this year I finally
joined this uh dark room and Screen
Printing Collective their name is
statlab in Berlin for over a 100 artists
and the point of it is so that you can
develop your own black and white photos
I'm mostly a color photographer but
since joining the space I'm pushing
myself to shoot black and white more so
the black and white was developed by me
but the color color is harder to deal
with um literally it's the difference of
having the the temperature of the water
right I mean 21 degrees is pretty easy
to you know you don't have to worry
about heating up the water if you have a
good relationship with your faucet but
um for color then you have to
meticulously have the right temperature
because I used to developed Color Film
when I was living in San Francisco years
ago but I haven't done it yet I'm pacing
myself and um I'm putting a lot of
energetic focus into planning events as
well as just making
music
your your music your the piece you you
the music piece that was part of the the
art piece that we we just showed was
honestly quite amazing uh I've heard
from the other people of the team that
they enjoyed listening to it um what
what does your process in creating a
piece of music look like you said that
you readapted it to uh to this RP
specifically but like how how did you go
about creating it to start
with
well I have a little synthesizer she's a
mini log she's like what this big a
little bit bigger it's um three octaves
essentially so that is a synthesizer
that I moved here with um I do
everything in
Ableton and the reason why it's called
the bird Clock Opera is you hear a lot
of these like robotic bird chirpy sounds
I found a bird clock in pren laab buug
uh like two years ago and I have a deep
love of repurposing
trash uh and so someone threw that out
and I picked it up and I was like oh my
God I have to sample this and so I've
been sampling it over and over in
different tracks and uh the original
version of that song I've never
performed it live because I have some
technical difficulties I have a very
slow laptop
unfortunately so 23 minute track if I'm
going to perform that live I will have
some issues with lag with my terrible
processing power um but yeah I do
everything in Ableton and I've I have a
probably a sample library of I don't
know maybe 15 gigabytes and I'm slowly
going through and categorizing like okay
this is the hick I like okay this is the
hat that I like and so I'm I've been
carving my sound out in my years of
being in Berlin and having um a lot of
time as a
freelancer um so just to Circle back on
on the issues with processing power and
like does that mean that the uh the
music piece just gets stretched out when
you when you perform it live or how how
does that work oh yeah oh yeah okay
so I don't I think in order for me to
perform it live I would really have to
have one laptop that just dedicated to
the some of the samples right because
that track probably has 40 different
layers which is a lot more than just a
typical like pop song which normally has
more like 13 layers for me because I
mean I'm using these plugins and plugins
are always so laggy and so that's why
I'm trying to replicate with the mini
log so if I were to perform it live
which I was really hoping to but I don't
think I can until I get a new
computer uh yeah would be having the
mini log generating some of those sounds
because some of the Sounds in the
recording are from the mini log um but
in order to reappropriate the piece I
mean a lot of these tracks that I've
created I cre I compose on the timeline
I don't compose on the clip view if that
makes sense um and so I'm just used to
looping things over and over that's how
I approached music when I was like I
used to have a for track when I was 16
years old and
that's kind of how I would would create
music would be and I had a delay pedal
too that would sometimes just keep
things on repeat and I think that style
really influences me now still because
that's how I compose I hear something
over and over in my head and then you
know I don't know it's kind of like
dancing as well where like you kind of
wait for the right movements to move and
so I generally had an idea when I was
listen L to you know what she was saying
okay like okay that makes sense you know
and so when the text gets a little bit
more gentle then I I I I stayed in the
same key for the whole piece that's also
helpful and it's kind of like making
informed decisions like if I really for
example there's this one part where if
you miss it I mean she's talking about
the rape of her sister and so when she
starts describing it more then I finally
drop the four in the floor beat
which you know emphasizes like the
heaviness of it and I think I talked
about that in the Q&A that I was worried
that that was too much but I think it
complemented the piece well and again I
always look to her for cues because it's
her peace and I'm trying to make sure
that I match hope that answers it
so basically you you you've got this
you've got her reading reading her her
piece and then you are basically trying
to make the music fit and kind of dance
with it to empath emphasize what what
she's
saying yes and since this piece was
designed for radio I used to have a
radio show back in the States years ago
I know that sometimes having moments of
pause and breathing is really important
so that people can just like observe and
let it sink in and literally like you
know we we would broadcast we were
streaming sometimes it's good to have a
little bit of a delay like 10 seconds or
15 seconds of just time for it to to
breathe so that if people have issues of
like tuning in that's why like the piece
also has me talking saying like hello
I'm
prism
um to to refresh your memory of of like
hey this is what's happening like
guiding you through
it so the what what kind of challenges
do you face when you design an art piece
uh to be to be broadcast as like a a
radio show um do you do you have
problems with like uh the piece just
being difficult to understand because of
the nature of of analog radio or does
does that play into it at
all my biggest fear when we released
this was oh my goodness I hope I mixed
this well enough because I wanted to
make sure that you could still hear her
vocals but not too loud but not
too not too low so I was constantly
going through it and listening to the
whole thing over and over making sure
that like okay you can hear her well
enough and so that was my biggest
concern uh with presenting this piece I
mean it's really a Time issue we had a
deadline to compose this piece and so I
was pretty much just working on this
nonstop like not sleeping sometimes you
export a 30 minute track and then you
realize oh I forgot to export the kicks
damn it so I'd have to just try again
have to reexport it again oh it was so
annoying but yeah you learned to just
triple check everything before you press
that
button um at least in terms of the mix I
think our our audio engineer he was uh
quite happy with you we talked at the
beginning when we were just
double-checking everything uh and and uh
they mentioned that uh the mix was
apparently pretty good what a relief I
don't have access to a studio at the
moment and I've never had formal
training I've really just been around
other musicians and I've tried to pick
up tips from that person tips from that
person you know trying to EQ all the
tracks well enough I mean I'm not like a
super pro pop producer
but I mean I do play live so I'm used to
making sure that okay I don't want any
clipping for goodness sake like can't
have that oh
yeah clipping is uh always always a huge
pain when when that red light starts to
flash and and you see oh no I've just
whatever I was doing it's it's damage
Beyond repair I need to need to go back
and fix
that yeah I mean I always put a limiter
on all of my on the master of all my
tracks too that's a really easy way to
just like kill it and of course there's
side chaining but that's not a thing
that was really an issue with this track
I mean designing an ambient piece is
kind of easier than designing something
that's more you know um Electro or dark
wave that's where I have more issues
with clipping usually but with this you
know I really wanted it to be I wanted
her vocals to stand out but again not
too
much um let me see whether there is uh
questions from from the community cuz
I'm just realizing that I uh that I'm
kind of nerding out here and uh just
asking asking questions I'm curious
about uh I can't see any other questions
right now so I'm just going to circle
back to to uh the the analog photography
um so we we've talked about about double
exposures um what what kind of
challenges do you face so obviously
Double Exposure is something that is
uh a thing you can only do with analog
photography you can imitate it digital
photography oh tell me more about that
then I I didn't I didn't know that that
you could properly do that with digital
you can um there are for I don't know
because I have an I'm I'm a Nikon
person uh so but a long time ago I
started out on Canon right but I
switched to Nikon because you can change
the lenses interchangeably and that
that's a huge Plus for me I have like
seven Nikon lenses from 15 mm to 180 I
love Nikon I love the old heavy glass um
but with certain cameras there's
literally a double exposure
setting and uh I never do it on on my
d750 but I think on like the mark 2 you
can do it but also there's another
camera that I use it's called a Hera
naumi 4 it is very special and it's a
toy camera and that also has a double
exposure
function so it's not the same a shooting
analog for sure because it just isn't
like you don't have to worry about
configuring your exposure for the first
image as much because it kind of does it
automatically like you basically create
an image and then you create a second
one on top of it so I guess the same
principles of like okay is there going
to be enough contrast in this image
because that's usually the problem when
people try and make double exposures is
that they're like oh look at this
beautiful picture of the sky I'm like
the sky is like this you know generally
like if it's a beautiful sunset it's
like medium gray you need like some
darkness in order for the other exposure
to come
through so so yeah I mean need something
like a sunset with a bunch of clouds on
in front of it that's blocking like half
of the have Sunset exactly and it needs
to be dark enough like um but I had some
i' I've done actually film swaps with
people for I don't know what seven years
now where I shoot a roll and then I mail
it to someone and then they shoot on top
of it or vice versa and my advice to
them is always like I I luckily I shoot
at night so I have a lot of contrast in
general usually I have you know darkness
and then bright pops of color and that
works really well for double exposures
but a lot of the people that I work with
um they're more like daytime
photographers so some of the exposures
have come out really well and some of
the have
not because because you need both images
to be kind of contrasty and Punchy you
do and when you're shooting analog then
you definitely have to think about how
you're rating your film and I've tried
to explain to people I'm like okay we're
shooting on an ISO 400 right but you
need to rate it like it's ISO 800 so
there's you know room for the other
photo to come through and I think
sometimes people overthink it they think
they should be shooting at 200 or they
don't change it at all um but you know
color negative film was much more
forgiving than
positive how how does like color
positive film do you do you shoot with
color positive film or do you just uh
prefer
negatives I shoot every type of film and
um when I shoot color positive film I
have to first of all make the decision
of how old is this film CU I use a lot
of expired film I think about the role
firsthand about whether or not I want to
crossprocess most of the time lately
I've been cross processing because I'm
really lucky I have this really
beautiful selection of um EP that's like
20 years old and usually when you have
the lower ISO you know it it it doesn't
degrade as fast um but I love the crazy
color contrast which is not color
contrast um color shifts that happen
which is very different from most the
people people that I work with most of
the people that I work with at schat
laab the the screen printing dark room
space you know they're classic
photographers for the most part they're
not as experimental as I am but that's
the whole Joy of it for me that I don't
know what I'm going to get you know uh
but that's why I do it I'm so excited to
do you know explosions of color and see
which one shows
up so yeah I shoot everything so
then until you develop your so you
should not only do shoot anlock where
you don't see what kind of photos you've
taken until you developed them but also
you should have expired film which makes
it kind of
like even less less
uh you can you you really have to have
to guess and play around to to figure
out what kind of photo you're going to
get out of a roller film that's yes film
from the same batch um that is like if
you have film that has been expired for
10 years but it's all from the same
batch do they usually degrade the same
way or do you have two different roles
of film and they will degrade in a
completely different
way it depends on the iso of the film I
mean I've found that like 400 ISO
degrades so much more quickly um and
there was one time where I shot actually
ISO 3200 that was color I've never seen
that rle of film ever since and that was
moldy and it was
beautiful um but usually if you get it
in the same batch and it's the same ISO
and like again it has it has to be
uniform across the board you know if if
if I get a batch of film from somebody
and it's not all been cold stored then I
can't predict it but the the batch that
I have now has been stored all the same
way and I'm not doing as good of a job
as I could storing it like I've had to
move a couple times since I've gotten
this batch but at the moment it's in a
fridge which is where should be as long
as it doesn't get wet that's a
disaster how how does mold kind of
affect the image do you get dark spots
or does it affect the color in any
way yes um mold shows up as like
sometimes these weird blotches kind of
like you have you know when you're
looking at a microscope microscopic
image and you see am amibas where it's
like these amorphous blobs sometimes you
see shapes like that and it's kind of it
is a little bit transparent um but also
you'll see specs but the 3200 speed film
that I was describing all of that showed
up as pink which is a crazy color like
most of the time when film is degrading
usually it's faded or um I don't know
there's like wavy variations like if you
have xrade film right then you have this
horrible band that comes across but no
that one rle of film was pink and I had
some CIA once
that uh the spot showed up as as blue
actually so it's just wild and
unpredictable so I get really excited
anytime someone has some really old film
yeah that sounds amazing and honestly
like like a lot of fun to to play around
with
um I think that's it in terms of
questions I'm just going to check
whether whether we've got uh any other
questions
um thank you very much to for coming to
answer questions thank you very much for
your submission of your your ad piece um
was really enjoyable uh yeah thank you
thank you so
much and obsidian says thank you as well
I think she just stopped
driving