SPEAKER

DeForrest Brown, Jr.

Independent Scholar, writer, musician, curator

N/A

DeForrest Brown, Jr. is an Alabama-raised, Ex-American rhythmanalyst, writer, musician and curator. His written works focus on a diagnostic exploration of electronic music through considerations of applied metaphilosophy including over a decade of music journalism at media outlets such as NPR, Artforum, Document Journal and Carhartt WIP. Under the name Speaker Music, he has released albums on Planet Mu, culminating in Synoptic Audio (2026). Brown’s debut book ‘Assembling a Black Counter Culture’ was released on Primary Information in 2022. In 2023, he co-curated HOPE, an international group exhibition presented by Museion Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bolzano-Bozen as part of the TECHNO HUMANITIES trilogy. He has presented work at the Venice Biennale Musica, Somerset House, Paris+ Art Basel, HKW and the Vancouver International Film Festival. He has also taught courses and lectured widely at Simon Fraser University, Harvard University, Princeton University and the School for Poetic Computation among others.

Session

Synoptic Audio

Synoptic Audio is a keynote lecture from rhythmanalyst, writer and musician DeForrest Brown Jr. During the session he will examine what he calls “semiocoustic reason”: a mode of thinking that unfolds through rhythm, vibration and feedback. According to DeForrest Brown Jr semiocoustic reason exists as a system of perception shaped by user interface design, political economy and the historical conditions of the recording music industry at its point of collapse in AI-trained platform capitalism. The talk details the process and theories behind his album ‘Synoptic Audio’, which are informed by Brown’s ongoing research into Rhythmanalytics, which combines Henri Lefebvre’s theory of rhythmanalysis and Norman Kelly’s analysis of Black political economy in music. Within this context, Synoptic Audio proposes an open model of electronic music in which improvisation, spatialization and post-production become methods for investigating sound as an intelligent design of embodied listening.

Keynote

🇬🇧 English

SCENE

Social Transformation

Convention

Speakers

DeForrest Brown, Jr.

Music Hall 2+3 – nhow Berlin

Nov 5, 2026,

15:30 –

16:20