We will view two music videos from Solange that were shot by Arthur Jafa, one of the artists we will closely study in this course, as well as Jafas talk at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The goal of the assignment is to consider the material from Jafas talk, the music videos and our introduction material on blackness (Hartman, Moten, Sharpe) and offer your assessment of what the music videos reveal to you about seeing a black aesthetic.

Watch the following:

Arthur Jafa Talk

Cranes in the Sky

Don’t Touch My Hair ft. Sampha

In 800-1000 words, consider the following questions:

What questions/issues is Jafa raising about black filmmaking/visuals?
What questions/issues is Jafa raising about black sound?
How is the music video able to address these questions/issues?
What are the challenges/roadblocks to creative freedom in this context?
How are these music videos understood in the context of Jafas Talk?
What do you see? In other words, what is the imagery showing you both in technical terms (framing, mis-en-scene, etc) and affectively (what feelings, emotions arise)?
How is sight shared across the videos? Or do you find them to be doing different things?
Considering our framework of blackness and black study (Hartman, Moten, Sharpe, Blackness for Sale, Rent-A-Negro) do these videos attend to notions of black life and/or death in an anti-black/anti-black women world?

The project is due Monday, February 17, at 11:59 PM. Early submissions are welcome.