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The Arts Intel Report

Code Switch: Distributing Blackness, Reprogramming Internet Art

Sculptor Tom Lloyd and his apprentices in the artist’s studio in Jamaica, Queens, c. 1968.

515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037, United States

While “new media art” has become more and more prevalent today, one area remains relatively unexplored: the contributions of Black artists to the nascent movement. A new exhibition seeks to remedy this by unearthing archival examples of how Black artists, authors, activists, and engineers helped usher in the new wave of internet art. On view are W. E. B. DuBois’s hand-drawn charts depicting Black contributions to American culture, as well as electronically-programmed light works by the sculptor Tom Lloyd (1929–1996). Also highlighted are the contributions of individuals such as Samuel R. Delaney, an award-winning science fiction writer, and Marion Stokes, the pioneering television archivist. —Paulina Prosnitz

Photo: Reginald McGhee, courtesy of the Studio Museum in Harlem Archives