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Technology shapes nearly every aspect of our present and sets the grounds for our future. But how can we build a future with and for everyone with systems that reproduce racial bias and exclusion?
Event details of Close Up 8.2: There are Black people in the future (Alisha B)
Date
13 February 2025
Time
19:00 -21:00
Location
BG 3
Room
VOX-POP (BG3 - ground floor)

From biased algorithms that misrecognize Black faces to digital surveillance disproportionately targeting Black communities, technology continues to reflect and reinforce systemic racism—a reality this Close Up confronts by exploring how Black artists are resisting, reimagining, and reclaiming it.

Through the lens of Afrofuturism, this event will spotlight the creative power of Black artists who transform technology into a tool of liberation and cultural expression. As Angela Davis states: “In order to work toward a better future, we need to believe that future is possible."

The programme
To explore this topic from an interdisciplinary perspective, the event will begin with a one-hour panel discussion. This session will establish a theoretical foundation, addressing themes like techno-racism, digital surveillance, and how Afrofuturism fosters empowered and resistant uses of technology by Black individuals.

After a short break, during which participants can continue conversations or enjoy provided refreshments, the programme will continue with a lecture performance. This segment will build on insights from the panel, emphasizing the role of Afrofuturistic aesthetics in the decolonizing inherent biases in technology. 

This programme is organised in collaboration with the Black Afro Student Association (BASA). The mission of BASA is to create a community where Black and Afro students can interact and relax in a safe space.

Practical 
Entrance to this programme is free, but due to limited capacity we kindly ask you to sign up via the form. Walk-in starts at 18:30 and ends around 21:30. Adress: Binnengasthuisstraat 9, VOX-POP (BG3, ground floor). 

A group of five people sitting on a bench, laughing and enjoying each other’s company. From left to right, one person is wearing a green tank top and jeans (Elle), the second person is in a blue long-sleeve top and gray skirt (Marije), the third is in a red crop top under a gray suit (Amara), the fourth person, is wearing a light blue button-up shirt and navy pants (Annika), and the last person is in a white t-shirt with gray pinstripe pants and glasses (Juju). The background features an artistic collage of buildings and structures, including a café, a pedestrian bridge, and an overhead cover, adding an urban and playful vibe to the composition.
Close Up Team

VOX-POP's programming is co-curated by an annually changing group of talented students. Since 2016, they have been organising CLOSE UP every 6-8 weeks: evenings where a social issue is scrutinised by academics, professionals and artists. This year, the student programme makers are once again ready to provide you with surprising programmes where we go in-depth together. This year's team consists of Amara, Elle, Juju, Marije and Nika. 

Panelists and Performers

Alyson Sillon / Ypsillon

Alyson Sillon is a multidisciplinary visual artist, performer, and graphic designer whose work is deeply inspired by the mythological dimensions of counter-cultural movements. Through a combination of embodied research and collaborative knowledge creation, Sillon has developed a personal artistic practice that spans across hybrid symbolic languages, performance, and multisensory installations. Her notable project, Before/After, has been exhibited at Het Hem, Radion, and Door Open Space.

Ypsillon

Ypsillon, the sonic alias of Alyson Sillon, is a DJ who perceives techno as a journey of release and resistance. Her sets invite the audiences to experience rave culture in a transformative and thought-provoking way and are deeply rooted in her artistic research.

Alexander Cromer

Alexander Cromer is a spoken word performance artist, artistic researcher, and PhD candidate in PhDArts at Leiden University and KABK. His research concerns the construction, perception, and use of voice within spoken word artistic practice, and building an understanding of voice as a tool for critical worldbuilding and the disruption of internalized systems of sonic oppression.

Josephine Zwaan

Josephine Zwaan is an artist, music producer and philosopher driving inclusivity and decoloniality in the field of music production. She is co-founder of rosetta., the first platform for female and nonbinary music producers in the Netherlands. Josephine initially started her career as a singer-songwriter, and later transformed into her dark rap alter-ego SUZOOKI SWIFT. Currently, Josephine is doing a PhD at the Erasmus School of Philosophy, where she focuses on reframing aesthetics, process and meaning in electronic music production through the lens of African philosophy.

BG 3

Room VOX-POP (BG3 - ground floor)
Binnengasthuisstraat 9
1012 ZA Amsterdam