Techno-Aesthetic Strategies in Black Music
[Tentative Proposal]

Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, some of the most innovative and influential articulations of musical aesthetics and technology can be traced in and through the lineages of Afrodiasporic sonic practice. Positioned at the crossroads of black musical traditions, modern audio technology, and political militancy, legions of black "tone scientists" have experimented with machines (both conceptual and material, analog and digital), seeking new forms of composing, performing, and recording music, new ways of manipulating and organizing sound. Such techno-aesthetic concerns have been key in the development of a host of Afrodiasporic musical styles, e.g. electric jazz, funk, dub, disco, electro, hip hop, r&b, dancehall, house, techno, drum & bass, and many more of electronic dance music's local and global offshoots, subgenres, and permutations. Although recent scholarship in the fields of American studies, musicology, and sound studies has begun to grapple with a number of relevant questions and issues, there is still a need for more in-depth, politically informed explorations of the diverse techno-aesthetic strategies in Afrodiasporic musicking. Most broadly, this panel invites papers from a range of (inter)disciplines that problematize the intersection of aesthetics, politics, and technology in black sonic cultures. Please send abstracts by January 18, 2008 to Gerwin Gallob, UC Santa Cruz, ggallob@ucsc.edu