Mother Cyborg

Last updated
Mother Cyborg
Re-publica Detroit 2019 - d2 (48935607398) (cropped).jpg
Mother Cyborg (2019).
Born
Diana J. Nucera

Chicago
Known forArtist, DJ, and educator

Diana J. Nucera, better known by her stage name Mother Cyborg, is a Detroit-based artist, DJ, and educator. Born in Chicago and raised in Frankfort, Indiana. Nucera began using the name Mother Cyborg on October 11, 2011, while DJing at a Halloween party. [1] Mother Cyborg continued DJing, hosting a monthly gig, deemed the "Temple of Cyborg", at Detroit's Temple Bar as well as performing her own music live. Mother Cyborg released her debut album Pressure Systems on April 29, 2017. [2]

Contents

Music

Mother Cyborg's music blends house, techno, electronica, dance and ambient trip-hop as well as featuring her own cello playing. [3] She has described her music as connecting to her work in technology, with the goal of creating space for emotions to be present and to elevate the consciousness.

Mother Cyborg has been involved in local music education in Detroit and in the Seraphine Collective, a collaborative support network of women/femme/nonbinary musicians, artists & DJ's in Detroit. [4] Through the Seraphine Collective, Mother Cyborg teaches students how to DJ in a four-week course called "Beatmatch Brunch." [5] Mother Cyborg donated the proceeds from her record release party for Pressure Systems to the Seraphine Collective.

Community technology work

Nucera founded the Detroit Community Technology Project, a sponsored project of the Allied Media Projects. The Detroit Community Technology Project empowers communities to use media and technology as a way of exploring solutions to challenges they face. In her role as a community technology educator, Nucera has authored the Opening Data Zine and the Teaching Community Technology Handbook. From 2016 to 2018, the Detroit Community Technology Project partnered with Detroit organizations Grace in Action Collectives, WNUC Community Radio, and the Church of the Messiah's Boulevard Harambe Program on the Equitable Internet Initiative. The program was designed to increase Internet access through the distribution of shared Gigabit Internet connections in three underserved neighborhoods: Vernor/Lawndale in Southwest Detroit, Islandview in Southeast Detroit, and the North End. Nucera appears speaking about this work in the Vice documentary short Meet the People Building Their Own Internet in Detroit. [6]

Nucera was a 2019 Literary Arts Fellow with Kresge Arts in Detroit. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turntablism</span> Art of manipulating sound using turntables

Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA system or broadcasting equipment so that a wider audience can hear the turntablist's music. Turntablists typically manipulate records on a turntable by moving the record with their hand to cue the stylus to exact points on a record, and by touching or moving the platter or record to stop, slow down, speed up or, spin the record backwards, or moving the turntable platter back and forth, all while using a DJ mixer's cross-fader control and the mixer's gain and equalization controls to adjust the sound and level of each turntable. Turntablists typically use two or more turntables and headphones to cue up desired start points on different records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghettotech</span> Genre of electronic music originating from Detroit

Ghettotech is a genre of electronic music originating from Detroit. It combines elements of Chicago's ghetto house with electro, Detroit techno, and Miami bass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derrick May (musician)</span> Musical artist

Derrick May, also known as Mayday and Rhythim Is Rhythim, is an American electronic musician from Belleville, Michigan, United States. May is credited with pioneering techno music in the 1980s along with collaborators Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, commonly known as The Belleville Three.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underground Resistance</span> American techno musical collective

Underground Resistance is an American musical collective from Detroit, Michigan. Producing primarily Detroit techno since 1990 with a grungy four-track musical aesthetic, they are also renowned for their militant political and anti-corporate ethos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mendi & Keith Obadike</span> Married Igbo Nigerian American couple

Mendi Obadike and Keith Obadike are a Black American couple who are artists and educators, of Igbo Nigerian heritage. They create music, writing, and art. Their music, performance art, and conceptual internet artwork have been exhibited internationally. They are both professors at Cornell University.

Cyberfeminism is a feminist approach which foregrounds the relationship between cyberspace, the Internet, and technology. It can be used to refer to a philosophy, art practices, methodologies or community. The term was coined in the early 1990s to describe the work of feminists interested in theorizing, critiquing, exploring and re-making the Internet, cyberspace and new-media technologies in general.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Care Moore</span> American poet (born 1971)

Jessica Care Moore is an American poet. She is the CEO of Moore Black Press, executive producer of BLACK WOMEN ROCK!, and founder of the literacy-driven jess Care moore Foundation. An internationally renowned poet, playwright, performance artist, and producer, she is the recipient of the 2013 Alain Locke Award from the Detroit Institute of Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Kresge Foundation</span> American philanthropic private foundation

The Kresge Foundation is a philanthropic private foundation headquartered in Troy, Michigan, United States. The foundation works to expand opportunities in America's cities through grantmaking and investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development efforts. The Kresge Foundation is one of wealthiest charitable organizations in the world, with an endowment of $4.3 billion as of June 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles McGee (painter)</span> American artist (1924–2021)

Charles McGee was an American artist and educator known for creating paintings, assemblages, and sculptures. His artwork is in the collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. He also had several large-scale public works in the city of Detroit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre Bizarre</span> Annual event

Theatre Bizarre is an annual Halloween masquerade staged at the Detroit Masonic Temple. The event takes up eight of the building's sixteen floors. The performers include local and national music acts, burlesque dancers, suspension artists and sideshow "freaks". Included in the national acts that have played at Theatre Bizarre are The Enigma, Mucca Pazza and winner of the 2010 Miss Exotic World Pageant, Roxi Dlite.

KC Adams is a Cree, Ojibway, and British artist and educator based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Terry Peake is an American composer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and owner of Robot Academy Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of DJing</span>

DJing is the act of playing existing recorded music for a live audience.

Ethan Daniel Davidson is an American musician and philanthropist known for producing folk music. Since the late 1990s, Davidson has released ten studio albums.

The Seraphine Collective is a Detroit-based feminist DJ network for women, femme, and non-binary DJs, musicians, and artists. The group provides workshops, organizes events, and provides space and resources for under-resourced and under-represented artists through its collectively run record label and venue.

Akeena Bronson, known professionally as DJ Keezy, is a DJ from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DJ Minx</span> Musical artist

Jennifer Witcher is a house and techno DJ and Producer born in Detroit, founder of the DJ collective 'Women on Wax', and accompanying record label 'Women on Wax Recordings'.

Shirley Woodson is an American visual artist, educator, mentor, and art collector who is most known for her spectacular figurative paintings depicting African American history. Her work that spans a career of 60 years and counting can be found in the collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, among other institutions. Woodson was named the 2021 Kresge Eminent Artist. The Detroit Institute of Arts exhibited 11 of her pieces in "Shirley Woodson: Shield of the Nile" Dec. 18, 2021 through June 12, 2022, the museum's first solo exhibition of Woodson's work. A painting by Woodson is featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit exhibition "Ground Up: Reflections on Black Abstraction" April 8-August 16, 2022.

Jayda Guy, known professionally as Jayda G, is a Canadian house music producer and DJ. She was nominated at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in the best electronic dance recording category for her song "Both of Us", and later remixed Dua Lipa's "Cool" for the album Club Future Nostalgia.

Darryl DeAngelo Terrell is an African-American artist based in Brooklyn, who is a lens-based media artist, activist, curator, DJ, educator, performer and writer, known for their photography and videography. They identify as queer, femme, and non-binary, which has informed their art work. Terrell's work explores issues of history, displacement, femme identity, sexuality, and gender, amongst other issues.

References

  1. Gavrilovska, Ana. "Mother Cyborg has landed". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  2. "PLAYING DETROIT: Mother Cyborg Teases Debut LP". Audiofemme. 2017-04-26. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  3. "Mother Cyborg's mission: Making dance music that heals". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  4. Gavrilovska, Ana. "How Seraphine Collective is fighting the patriarchy". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  5. "Changing the Face of Music in Detroit | Mirror News". mirrornews.hfcc.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  6. "These Detroit Residents Are Building Their Own Internet". Black Enterprise. 2017-11-21. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  7. "2019 Kresge Fellows announced in visual and literary arts". The Kresge Foundation. 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2020-02-22.