UC San Diego

Circular Metafictions: what remains unbound is gathered is a hybrid-documentary that conceptualizes a trace from the Middle Passage toward biographical historiography to examine nuanced portraits of ordinary black life. I introduce my developing concept, Black Noetic Theory (BNT) to consider how blackness, interiority and performance are embedded in modes of production, for which to imagine black existence otherwise in audiovisual space. The thesis is divided into three parts to reflect upon the relationships between black life, the incoherencies of black life and artistic production. Part one, situates colonial history and resulting fragmentation. Part two, explores the Henrietta Marie slave ship and speculating a maternal origin. Part three, observes personal history to locate continuities between the spirit and physical worlds.