Writing on the exclusion of black artists from the sound arts canon, I came to discover the abundnce of black artists working within sound. I found that majoritively, artists who identify as black often tie their art to their heritage. Previously, I had thought this was something artists of colour may feel is expected of them due to the pressures of the academisation of art, and therefore the politicisation of black (specifically, although also extends to all non-white cultures) existence. However, in my research, I found that carrying the importance of heritage within many artists’ works was more about keeping history alive, and celebrating how that history has naturally reproduced in the sonic landscape of black and non-white art today.

I got to thinking about my own heritage, and how even though I am not actively particpating in the communities where my cultures reside, how it changes aspects of my life: how I am othered from those around me at times, how I have gained or lost opportunities, how generational trauma manifests within me.

I want to honour and preserve my own heritage and history the way in which prominent figures working with sound do. To preserve a history, though, is not to portray an idealised image. It is to carry fact, as Sacht Hoyt does with Afro-sonic mapping.

To take this idea of “Afro-sonic mapping” and apply it to myself would be to create a “REO-sonic mapping”:

For my creative piece, I am going to use all of my artistic mediums to create a performance based on this idea of preserving history and heritage. These mediums are saxophone, sampling using DAW, and turntablism. I will use field recordings from El Salvador within the performance, and images taken in South Africa as visual score.