Soulcraft: Theorizing Black Techne in African and American Viral Dance

Abstract

This article proposes the notion of soulcraft as an alternative framing for the work that Africans and African diasporans imbue upon material culture and social projects. Through ethnographic encounters with the practitioners of Chicago Footwork and Afrobeats dance music, the author theorizes a Black vernacular approach to the concept of techne. This essay contributes to discourse in the philosophy of technology to document spirituality in viral dance practices and forms of digital embodiment, linking them to metaphysical understandings of “soul” in African and African American philosophical thought. Interviews and critical analysis of digital media help the author illustrate the ways that these African and diasporic media innovators elide the dualistic distinctions between material tech-making and spiritual strivings, in service of an emancipatory ethos for technology.