The Kitchen Presents Culminating Presentations From 2023 L.a.b. Research Residency

The Kitchen has announced the public programming stemming from its 2022–2023 L.A.B. Research Residency, for which the institution, with the support of the Simons Foundation, has partnered with the collective School for Poetic Computation (SFPC) to explore the histories of art, science, and technology represented in The Kitchen's archive. Results of the collaboration will be shared in August and September at physical locations including The Kitchen's home-away-from-home at Westbeth, as well as online via Montez Press Radio and The Kitchen's newly revamped website.

 

The Kitchen and SFPC's collective investigation began in fall 2022 with the formation of four research groups, each comprising a primary researcher and their advisors. They are: Lillian-Yvonne Bertram (primary researcher), with advisors Melanie Hoff, Erik Loyer, and Eileen Isagon Skyers; fields harrington (primary researcher), with advisors Zainab Aliyu, mayfield brooks, and Sebastián Morales Prado; Romi Ron Morrison (primary researcher), with advisors Neta Bomani, Ryan C. Clarke, and Mendi Obadike; and Asha Tamirisa (primary researcher), with advisors Galen Macdonald, Chakeiya Richmond, and Tiri Kananuruk. Three additional artists—American Artist, Taylor Levy, and Che-Wei Wang—are participating in the L.A.B Research Residency as general advisors, offering feedback to all four research groups.

 

Throughout the residency, the research groups have pursued inquiries related to the thematic "Instruments of the Black Gooey Universe"—a concept that proposes that "instruments" drawn from critical theory, electronics, and networked performance practice can be deployed to probe and counter the opaque world of computing and the racial biases embedded within computational systems.

 

“Instruments of the Black Gooey Universe” is inspired by extracurricular connections between two recurring SFPC courses: Dark Matters, a critical theory class, taught by American Artist, that investigates the surveillance of Blackness and the construction of whiteness as “neutral” within high technology; and Hardware, a hands-on electronics class taught by the collective CW&T (Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy). American Artist developed the concept “Black Gooey Universe” to describe a dimension of computer technology that posits Blackness as neutral, or as the backdrop of virtual creation. Within the Black Gooey Universe, Blackness is referenced both formally, as a color; and socially, as a site of experimentation, expression, and production by Black people. Since Fall 2022, members of the research groups have been engaging with The Kitchen's archive of performance recordings, program ephemera, posters, oral histories, and more to glean precedents for how artists and programs throughout the institution's history have confronted the Black Gooey Universe.

 

The culminating presentations in August and September unfold across multiple locations and mediums. They include four conversations between primary researchers, advisors, and invited guests—each taking the form of a broadcast on Montez Press Radio, an experimental broadcasting and performance platform that is also engaged in a 12-month residency with The Kitchen. These discussions will address topics including influence and the avant-garde, approaches to sonic improvisation, the boundaries between reproduction and repetition, and more. Select segments will be recorded with live audiences at Montez Press Radio's Canal Street headquarters. All will be archived for future listening on The Kitchen's website. Additional outputs from the residency include two in-person, hybrid discussion–performance events; a new online and print publication; prototypes for technologies related to archival research; and a web project. Full information on all programs, including dates and times of in-person offerings, is below.

 

The Kitchen L.A.B. Residency x Simons Foundation, in partnership with School for Poetic Computation Co-Directors Zainab Aliyu, Todd Anderson, American Artist, Neta Bomani, Melanie Hoff, Galen Macdonald, and Celine Wong Katzman, is organized by Legacy Russell, Executive Director & Chief Curator, and Alison Burstein, Curator, with Angelique Rosales Salgado, Curatorial Assistant, and Daniella Brito, The Kitchen L.A.B. Research Residency x Simons Foundation Fellow.

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