Data Sounds

Wikidata Query for Techno Artists

One of those central questions in Afrofuturism is how the archive chooses to remember the past. At its core, the record of black people in the Western experience tends to support the imposition by Eurocentric ideas. Those ideas assume progress, order, and success are measured by the experience of the Western nations. In the 18th century, those “Western” nations were European empires in competition with each other. In the 20th century, the nature of empire is oriented around the United States by the simple fact that it inherited control of the world system of the 19th century through its economic and geopolitical engagement. The system did not change. What changed is that those at the top shifted from one side of the Atlantic to the other. This shift was/is shaped by ideological positioning (on the part of the United States) that emphasizes differences around citizenship, property, and identity. Yet, like the system before it, non-white bodies and non-Western culture remained in a position of lesser power.

I mention all of this to make the point that the “contested” narrative of the origin of techno music is merely a symptom of this systemic thinking. Techno is a global musical genre, and it was created in Detroit. Yet, many people argue it was created in Germany. This German origin story is false, but it is understandable if you consider how information flows and institutions record.

To challenge how the archive can be erased, we need to catalog and empower the people on the ground to tell their stories. This will be at the heart of Detroit and the Rise of Machine Music, 1975 to 1995, the exhibition I’m working on for 2025.