Code Switch: Distributing Blackness, Reprogramming Internet Art

Code Switch: Distributing Blackness, Reprogramming Internet Art is the first international exhibition of its kind, exploring and redefining the concept of “Black data” in new media art and digital practice. It centres and celebrates the contributions of artists of African descent to these fields.

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Taking its name from André L. Brock’s influential book Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures (2020), the exhibition examines how Black cultural production intersects with the history of computation—both as a technical framework and a source of creative inspiration.

The project unfolds in two parts:

• Fall 2024: An archival exhibition at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, tracing the evolution of data and computation from pre-digital methods to early computing. It highlights the work of pioneers such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Evelyn Boyd Granville, Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Annie Easley, Gladys West, and Clarence “Skip” Ellis. It also reflects on the tensions between the internet’s origins in the U.S. government’s ARPANET project and the cultural implications of technological modernity—paralleling the founding of The Studio Museum in Harlem in 1968 and its seminal exhibition Electronic Refractions II, featuring Tom Lloyd.
• Spring 2025: A contemporary group show in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), expanding on these themes through current digital and new media practices.

The Schomburg presentation includes works by Tom Lloyd, David Drake, Benjamin Patterson, Howardena Pindell, Candis Mosely Pettway, Mattie Ross, Ulysses Jenkins, Milford Graves, Faith Ringgold, Blondell Cummings, Lorraine O’Grady, Jack Whitten, and George Lewis—alongside writers Samuel R. Delany and Octavia E. Butler, and archivist and media activist Marion Stokes.

Code Switch is a pioneering international exhibition that centers Black contributions to digital arts, redefining the role of Black cultural production in new media. Through a mix of archival materials and contemporary works, it highlights Black digital history and innovation, from early computing to today’s internet art.

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The exhibition fosters tech literacy and accessibility by educating visitors about Black-led achievements in computation and digital art. By showing how deeply Black history is woven into these fields, it empowers Black communities to claim space within both tech and the arts.

By celebrating Black cultural ingenuity, Code Switch actively disrupts exclusionary narratives in new media. It challenges stereotypes and reduces harm by affirming Black agency in technology, offering a more accurate and expansive vision of who shapes the digital world.

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The exhibition also takes a leading role in data and knowledge stewardship by creating a curated archive of Black digital contributions. This archive preserves culturally specific innovations within a Black-led framework, ensuring that Black digital legacies are recognized, protected, and accessible for generations to come.

1. How do I acknowledge or overlook Black contributions to digital art and technology in my own practice or programming?
Am I engaging with the histories, aesthetics, and innovations that Black artists and technologists have shaped?

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2. How can I support the creation, preservation, and sharing of culturally rooted digital knowledge?
What does it mean to be a responsible steward of digital culture, especially when working with or alongside Black communities?