tekhnē #4 - DeForrest Brown Jr.

Bi-monthly insights into the activities of the European project tekhnē, which started in 2023. The series showcases a selection of artists who share and discuss their work and listen to recorded material. By putting the focus on the user rather than the developer, this project aims to explore the emancipatory potential of technology in music and sound art. Technology as an art of craft, appropriating and transforming existing tools, to imagine multiple ways of creative misuse. tekhnē is a collaborative project, co-funded by the European Union.

This episode features DeForrest Brown Jr., an ex-American writer, journalist, theorist, curator and a self-described musician by necessity - releasing music under his Speaker Music moniker. DeForrest Brown Jr. is the author of the book Assembling a Black Counter Culture, where he presents a comprehensive account of techno with a focus on the history of Black experiences in industrialized labor systems—repositioning the genre as a unique form of Black musical and cultural production.

Assembling a Black Counter Culture reframes techno from a Black theoretical perspective distinct from its cultural assimilation within predominantly white, European electronic music contexts and discourse. This talk, given by DeForrest Brown Jr. on the 4th of October 2024 at Barreiro’s Jazz School as part of the programme of OUT.FEST’s 20th edition, is moderated by Margarida Mendes, and gives an overview of key details of his book and expands on its context two years after its publication.