Kodwo Eshun

Kodwo Eshun (born 1967) is a British-Ghanaian writer, theorist and film-maker. He studied English Literature (BA Hons, MA Hons) at University College, Oxford University and Romanticism and Modernism MA Hons at Southampton University. He is currently course leader of the MA in Aural and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Writing

Eshun's writing deals with cyberculture, science fiction and music with a particular focus on where these ideas intersect with the African Diaspora. He has contributed to a wide-range of publications including The Guardian, The Face, The Wire, i-D, Melody Maker, Spin, Arena, Frieze, CR: The New Centennial Review and 032c.

More Brilliant Than The Sun

Eshun's book More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction was published in 1998 and is “At its simplest... a study of visions of the future in music from Sun Ra to 4 Hero”.^[1] Written in a style that makes extensive use of neologism, re-appropriated jargon and compound words the book explores the intersection of black music and science fiction from an afrofuturist viewpoint.

Architechtronics

Architechtronics is a collaboration by Kodwo Eshun and Franz Pomassl recorded live at the AR-60-Studio (ORF/FM4) Vienna in 1998. Eshun's contribution is the recitation of a text entitled Black Atlantic Turns On The Flow Line which condenses much of the thematic content of More Brilliant Than The Sun.

The Otolith Group

In 2002 Eshun co-founded The Otolith Group with Anjalika Sagar, the name derived from a structure found in the inner earthat establishes our sense of gravity and orientation.^[2] Based in London the group's work engages with archival materials, with futurity and with the histories of transnationality.^[3] The group's projects include film production & exhibition curation as part of an integrated practice with the intended aim to "build a new film culture".^[4] The group was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2010 for their project A Long Time Between Suns.^[5]

Bibliography

• More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books. 1998. ISBN 0-7043-8025-0
• The Microrhythmic Pneumacosm of Hype Williams in Cinesonic: cinema and the sound of music. Edited by Philip Brophy. Sydney: Australian film, television, and radio school. 2000. ISBN 978-1-876351-09-0
• Operating System for the Redesign of Sonic Reality in Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music Edited by Christoph Cox & Daniel Warner. London: Continuum Books. 2004. ISBN 0-8264-1615-2
• Learning from Lagos: A Dialogue on the Poetics of Informal Habitation in David Adjaye: Making Public Buildings: Specificity Customization Imbrication Edited by Peter Allison. London: Thames & Hudson. 2006. ISBN 0-500-28648-5
• Drawing the Forms of Things Unknown and John Akomfrah in conversation with Kodwo Eshun in The Ghosts Of Songs: The Film Art of The Black Audio Film Collective. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 2007. ISBN 978-1-84631-014-0

Notes

External links

• The Otolith Group homepage
• Interview with Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun (The Otolith Group) about their works at the MACBA Collection (2011) MP3
• Drexciya: Fear of a Wet Planet - an article by Kodwo Eshun from The Wire originally published in Issue 167 January 1998
• Everything was to be done. All the adventures are still there. - A Speculative Dialogue with Kodwo Eshun by Geert Lovnik originally published in Telepolis
• Some Excursions into Sonic Fiction - A two-step with Kodwo Eshun - by Dirk Van Weelden
• Obituary of Octavia Butler - by Kodwo Eshun from The Guardian, published Thursday March 16, 2006
• This Day Remains - an article by The Otolith Group about The Black Audio Film Collective from Frieze