Resisting Biometrics/Evolving Cyberebonics
Question:
Osunwunmi remembers that when we met, you expressed doubts about the premise
of a digital residency for Black artists. This was shortly before you gave
us a text that validated and celebrated and expanded and enhanced and played
very much with what happens when you mix ideas about race up with ideas
about New Technology. And you must be aware of how much your own career
exemplifies the idea of positive role model as you have used the term in
connection with J. T. Thompson.
Osunwunmi would like to ask you to expand on that ambivalence. We describe
Calling as a digital residency programme for artists of African heritage
- what is there about that description that seems questionable to you? Is
it about definitions? Would you ever put together a project with race (yes,
another very slippery word) as a defining factor? And is there any aspect
of this ambivalence I'm assuming that gets resolved in the course of your
practice?"