Join us for an interactive online lecture, listening event and conversation with writer and curator Alexander Ghedi Weheliye and artist and DJ Olukemi Lijadu, on the occasion of her solo exhibition, Feedback, at Spike Island. Alexander and Olukemi will come together to discuss the exciting possibilities and challenges of researching, thinking about, and thinking through sound and music. They’ll reflect on the legacies of electronic music and the space where personal histories and social research collide, through the lens of Olukemi’s film commission, Feedback (2026), and Alexander’s current project, Between Continents – a critical memoir about their early life in East Germany and Somalia. Music and visuals will underpin the conversation, with the audience being taken on a sonic journey from heavy baselines, to emotional vocals, and electronic, funk-driven productions. They’ll discuss the process of collecting and incorporating non-traditional media, such as film, music and collage, into scholarly and non-scholarly writing. How do you approach research around a field of study which is under-researched? Can DJing be used as a methodology that travels across mediums? About Olukemi Lijadu Olukemi Lijadu is a multi-disciplinary artist and DJ, with a focus on moving image and sound. She recently was a recipient of London’s ICA Image Behaviour grant where she was commissioned to create and debut her most recent film-performance Guardian Angel. In 2018, she graduated from Stanford as a masters student in Philosophy where she focused on African philosophical systems. Her academic background grounds her research-based approach to her artistic practice. Her work explores questions around music of the diaspora, heritage and the complexity of feeling. About Alexander Ghedi Weheliye Alexander Ghedi Weheliye is a writer, professor, and curator focusing on Black Studies, critical theory, gender and sexuality studies, social technologies, and popular culture. They are Malcolm S. Forbes Professor in the Department of Modern Culture and Media and the Brown Arts Institute at Brown University. They are the author of Phonographies: Grooves in Sonic Afro-Modernity (2005), Habeas Viscus: Racializing Assemblages, Biopolitics, and Black Feminist Theories of the Human (2014), and Feenin: R&B Music and the Materiality of BlackFem Voices and Technology (2023). The event will be streamed via Zoom and live captioning will be available. This is a private event for current members of the Spike Island community and the Kaleidoscope Network only. It has been organised by Spike Island for the Kaleidsocope Network, a collaboration between Eastside Projects (Birmingham), Spike Island (Bristol), Primary (Nottingham), The NewBridge Project (Newcastle) and and Bloc Projects (Sheffield). Membership to any of the above organisations automatically makes you part of the Kaleidoscope Network.
