Test Pattern

Test Pattern 01: DeForrest Brown Jr. on March 25
Test Pattern 02: SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY on April 15
Test Pattern 03: Moor Mother on June 3

In an era of information overload, deepfakery, media consolidation, and mass surveillance, is it possible to reclaim the transformative potential of alternative media? 

This spring, the ICA at VCU launched Test Pattern, a hybrid performance series that invites visiting artists to use the ICA auditorium as an experimental production studio, inspired by the legacy of public access TV and alternative video movements in the US. During each week-long residency, the artists collaborate with members of the local community, transforming the auditorium into a space for music, movement, activism, and deep conversations. Each week culminates in a live performance and broadcast.

Curated by ICA Assistant Curator of Performance David Riley, the spring season of Test Pattern features DeForrest Brown Jr., SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY, and Moor Mother, artists who share an interdisciplinary approach to performance, an interest in the pitfalls and potential of technology, and a commitment to nightlife as a practice. 

On March 25, Test Pattern kicked off with a performance by musician and theorist DeForrest Brown Jr., author of the upcoming book Assembling a Black Counter Culture, in collaboration with VCU professor and DJ madison moore. Titled Black Vibrations, the performance considered the history of Detroit techno, and the potential of “vibrational technologies” as an instrument and a weapon, transforming the auditorium into a bass heavy nightclub where the audience was invited to dance. The performance was followed by a conversation between the artists and scholar Alexander Weheliye, tracing the connections between labor, technology, and cultural production.

On April 15, new media artist SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY presented DEWCLAW, a multimedia composition that used the choreography of sadomasochist bondage play and 1980s and ‘90s’ wrestling promos to consider the vestigial desires hidden within our bodies and identities, in collaboration with local kink artists Cake, Ms TNT Impact, and Kitten. The cast was joined in conversation by VCU professor Julian Kevon Glover and Jackie Bishop Wells, the owner of Richmond’s long-running fetish club Fallout. DEWCLAW will find new life online in the form of a website using custom pop up software that SHAWNÉ commissioned from internet artist and educator Nick Briz, launching on May 23.

On June 3, musician, poet, activist, and co-founder of Black Quantum Futurism Moor Mother will reunite with Richmond musician Ohbliv—one of the producers on her debut studio album Fetish Bones—for a live musical performance. They will be joined by Philadelphia-based artists Vitche-Boul Ra and justmadnice, and local cellist Elijah Hall, followed with a conversation moderated by artist and VCU professor Caitlin Cherry.

Test Pattern builds on the ICA’s commitment to open-ended and collaborative engagements between artists and audiences, with an emphasis on presenting experimental performance to audiences in the Richmond region. Test Pattern offers the public a unique window into the creative process to observe rehearsals, participate in live tapings and online streams of the performances, and to later access the performances in other forms––as videos, websites, and publications.

For more information on Test Pattern and the upcoming fall season, visit the ICA website and the ICA’s YouTube channel.