"If I Be Wrong" by Wolf Larsen

The realms of Sonic Modernity and Post-Modernity belong to those kind of spaces inhabited by communities that engage in constant everyday negotiations with various forms of embodiment. Whereas they refer to forms of melodic forms of sound or the unwanted effects that noise introduces into our sensorial and psychic experiences,  these negotiations can range from the most vital ones, such as breathing (“Can’t breathe!“), speaking (“No one is listening to us!"), and walking in public ("Can’t wear saggy pants in South Carolina"). Embodiment, due to the ontological nature of its theoretical formulation, belongs to forms of guiding us/human beings/ towards the recognition of our unalienable rights to perform either individually or collectively a sonic rendition of our interpretations of both the spirit and the soul. 

Embodiment, or embodied cognition, understands mental processes as computational processes; thus, the brain, framed as a computer, is a space inhabited by various forms of cognition. Departing from these premises, our brain is like a processor of perception, language, learning, memory, categorization, problem solving, emotion, social cognition, and ontological identification. Regardless of this rather natural computational understanding of our brain processes, the human brain is continuously sculpting both inner and outer reality in specific spaces, times, and sonic realities. An ontological example of this process is our unavoidable (unless you are a yoga non-thinking master!) inner monologic/dialogic interaction with our/selves.  

This way, regardless of our attempts to escape from our inner sonic interactions with our/selves, our thoughts are embodied and manifested through various forms of textual/sonic/embodied languages. 

As we keep entering into a present tense that is shaped by imaginations about the future through the mediation of technologies such as Artificial Intelligent mega-brains and virtual realities, we'll find ourselves compelled to express our collective individuality through complex maneuvers such as walk-dancing and talk-singing, to name only a couple of creative examples of how our bodies are already reacting to a world that exudes anxieties about apocalyptic future landscapes. 

The imminent possibility of human extinction, the radicalization of climate change, and constant pandemic scenarios are now, more than ever, finding their way into our sensorial experiences. You can name what your most terrible fears draw as a possible future. Personally, I enjoy imagining the future through the lens of Afrofuturism and Black Radical Imagination.  

Thinking about the inextricable historical foundations of the binary space-sound, while referring to the aesthetic maneuvers of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, whose music intends to make references to dissimilar historical times and geographic spaces while still preserving an Afrocentric sonic teleology, Erik Steinskog suggests, “in sound, texts, and images these musical acts reference and relate to time and space (Afrofuturism and Black Sound Studies, 78). Thus, the aforementioned technologies, can also aid humans to shape both time and space.

In terms of one of the ways the human body can shape our perception of reality, and collapse our experience of space and time, I find the theatrical dancing performance of the Afrodancer featured in the video "If I Be Wrong" by Wolf Larsen a useful performative tool to demonstrate how the human body can interact with a virtual visualization of both the present tense and the idea of an open future. 

The rest of this analysis is presented in the form of a set of screenshots taken while attempting a parallel embodiment of the dancing performance of "If I Be Wrong." 

As a corollary, if while looking at these screenshots or watching the video you feel compelled to dance or sing, let yourself fall into the beautiful embodiment of an aestheticized soul and spirit finding freedom through performative maneuvers.