the Black box test, 2022

'the Black box test', 2022
Found school desk, reused 2x4's, matte black paint, custom wallpaper, notebooks, ink, individual libraries, all non-Black installation team

​​​the Black box test presents a multidisciplinary conceptualization of Black space, drawing on architecture, oral history and visual theory. Artist Jessica Gaynelle Moss presents a richly layered polyphony that includes a sound installation, thematic illustrations, concept maps, and a series of interactive discussions with Black artists, scholars and experts who are dedicated to cultivating, creating and protecting our shared sacred spaces.

‘the Black box test’ is an interactive installation consisting of sound, thematic illustrations, and concept maps, selections from private libraries, as well as a robust program with Black experts across the field who are dedicated to creating and protecting Black spaces.

We are under siege, our lives are at risk, know this or face extinction.

Black Space = Black Power.

the Black box test examines Black space in a broad cultural context that includes the artist’s own practice-based interpretations, scholarship and personal experience situated alongside the knowledge and expertise of other Black artists, leaders and cultural specialists.

"Artist Jessica Gaynelle Moss reimagines new frameworks and strategizes ways to build, maintain and sustain the ideal spaces we need. the Black box test examines Black space in a broad cultural context that includes the artist’s own practice-based interpretations, scholarship and personal experience situated alongside the knowledge and expertise of other Black artists, leaders and cultural specialists.

Moss’ previous projects-- declaring Black autonomous space within public space, reclaiming physical land for Black people, and redeveloping property in Black communities for Black artists-- build on the burgeoning legacies of contemporary Black space cultivators and protectors like Rick Lowe of Project Row Houses in Houston, TX, Mark Bradford of Art+Practice in Los Angeles, CA and Theaster Gates of Rebuild Foundation in Chicago, IL. Like these artists, Moss is dedicated to cultivating and preserving Black space through ethical community-based art making, reciprocal relationships and reimagining the built environment.

the Black box test presents a multidisciplinary conceptualization of Black space, drawing on architecture, oral history and visual theory. Artist Jessica Gaynelle Moss presents a richly layered polyphony that includes a sound installation, thematic illustrations, concept maps, and a series of interactive discussions with Black artists, scholars and experts who are dedicated to cultivating, creating and protecting our shared sacred spaces. This exhibition was curated by Sadie Woods and Janice Bond of Selenite Arts Advisory."

In science, computing and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. The term can be used to refer to many inner workings, such as the ones of an engine, an algorithm, the human brain, or an institution or government.

When the observer (an agent) can also do some stimulus (input), the relation with the black box is not only an observation, but an experiment.

Join us for a series of experimental discussions that bridge prominent and influential Pittsburgh-based artists and scholars with nationally-recognized Black makers and creators together to answer the following questions:

How do Black artists and scholars create and protect cultural spaces?How can art support healing and liberation in Black communities?What is the relationship between Black identity, land and environment?

“We demand (and deserve) complete control of our social institutions without interference by any alien race or races.”

- Marcus Garvey

the Black box test is a laboratory for Black scholarship, communion, rest and reflection that invites Black people to use the pens and notebooks provided to contribute their own opinions, thoughts and experiences.

The August Wilson African American Cultural Center invites ONLY people who identify as Black, African American, African, Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, or of the African diaspora to enter and explore the following exhibition, the Black box test.

Here, in this Black space, we are the architects; we make our own rules collectively and non-hierarchically.

Please feel free to pick up a text, have a seat, read for a while, and then contribute to the concept mapping drawing on the wall "A Work in Progress, 2015 - 2016" (ink on paper).

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLynXuv99nFp_IbgR-Oqos7T7ihp0TDNbx