Black Mass

Essays by critic, artist, and curator Aria Dean that articulate her theory of “blaccelerationism.” Black Mass brings together a group of previously uncollected essays by critic, artist, and curator Aria Dean. Written over the past five years, these timely, wide-ranging texts deftly consider material culture’s intersections with race, technology, and politics. Spanning themes that range from trauma and necropolitics to memes and selfies, these essays offer frank, original assessments of the production and circulation of images in our accelerated media landscape. Dean draws from Frankfurt School philosophy, Black studies, and contemporary art to articulate her theory of “blaccelerationism,” which places the Black subject at the center of the coming end of the world—as both the agent of its demise and its inheritor. With one eye on the recent past and another anticipating the near future, Black Mass offers a glance in the rear view mirror from a vehicle moving toward a new reality at breakneck speed.