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Part of Pyar Seth’s upcoming book project, The Making of the Hip Hop Brain, this chapter examines the policing of Hip Hop in urban centers and how late 20th century modes of surveillance developed on a sensory grammar, a kind of atmospheric calculus of vibes and volume. Beginning with images of Black people in public space—dancing, listening to music, gathering, making noise—I trace how these ordinary forms of collective life came to be interpreted as signs of urban disorder. Neuroscientists increasingly claimed that they had the tools to explain what city officials could only sense: the disturbances of the street were disturbances of the brain. With the development of new neuroimaging technologies capable of making the brain visible, researchers could map neural activity and locate, or so they believed, the biological mechanisms underlying responses to rhythm, volume, movement, and sound. The Hip Hop brain emerged as a new object of scientific inquiry—a brain that could be measured, visualized, and rendered legible through the instruments of neuroscience.
Pyar Seth is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Notre Dame, with a concurrent appointment in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre. Pyar is the author of Scripted Death: How Medicine Justifies State Violence (NYU Press, 2027).
Questions? Email Tarryn Chun at tchun@nd.edu.
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The Visual Cultures Workshop (VCW) gathers faculty and graduate students from across the campus to discuss any aspect of visual culture, including film, TV, game studies, art history, design, and more. Participation in these workshops is required for graduate students in the Screen Cultures Graduate Minor but is open to any member of the Notre Dame community.
The Department of Film, Television, and Theatre hosts multiple VCWs every semester. Faculty and graduate students alike are invited to present their scholarly and creative works-in-progress.