The Aesthetic Cosmogram: A Model of Africana Aesthetics

The Aesthetic Cosmogram: A Model of Africana Aesthetics

The Aesthetic Cosmogram is a comprehensive model that centers Polycentricity as the guiding core principle of Africana Aesthetics. This model illustrates how polycentricity influences aesthetics, politics, dance movement, and musical composition. It results in societies governed by multiple centers, polyrhythmic and polymetric musical compositions, polyphonic song techniques, and polycentric dance techniques.

Core Principle: Polycentricity in Africana Dance and Beyond

Polycentricity is a core principle that defines the dynamic nature of Africana aesthetics, especially within the realm of African Diaspora Dance. It encapsulates the distribution of power, movement, and creative agency across multiple centers, fostering a rich, interconnected system of artistic expression and communal governance. This principle extends beyond dance to influence creation, governance, performance, and the cognosomatic approach—acknowledging the interconnectedness of mind and body.

Polycentricity in Creation

In the creative process, polycentricity manifests as a collaborative and inclusive approach where multiple voices and perspectives are valued and integrated. This distributed creative agency ensures that the process is democratic and holistic, involving contributions from various members of the community. It fosters an environment where co-creation thrives, and innovation is a collective endeavor. The polycentric approach in creation leads to works that are rich in diversity, reflecting the multifaceted nature of the community and the multiplicity of influences.

Polycentricity in Governance

Polycentricity also extends to the governance of dance communities, promoting an inclusive and participatory model. Decision-making processes are decentralized, allowing for multiple centers of influence and leadership. This mode of governance respects the autonomy and contributions of all members, ensuring that power is not concentrated but shared across the community. This approach fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility among all participants, encouraging active engagement and collaboration.

Polycentricity in Performance

In performance, polycentricity is vividly illustrated through the diverse roles and interactions that take place on stage. Each performer contributes uniquely, and the choreography often involves movements that originate from multiple centers within the body. This distribution of movement creates a dynamic, multifaceted performance that captures the audience’s attention from various angles. The interaction between performers is also polycentric, as they respond to and engage with each other, creating a fluid and harmonious ensemble.

Polycentricity in the Cognosomatic Approach

The cognosomatic approach in Africana Dance emphasizes the interconnectedness of mind and body, recognizing that cognitive and somatic experiences are deeply intertwined. Polycentricity in this context refers to the ability of different body parts to move independently yet harmoniously. This approach involves a detailed understanding of the body’s anatomy and mechanics, allowing for movements that are grounded, fluid, and articulated.

In African Diaspora Dance, polycentricity involves breaking down the torso into its component parts to allow for articulated movements of the shoulders, chest quadrants, abdominals/waist, pelvis, hip quadrants, and spine. Each part moves independently, contributing to the overall fluidity and grace of the dance. This detailed articulation allows dancers to express a wide range of emotions and ideas through their movements, creating a rich and nuanced performance.

Structure of the Cosmogram

Outer Circle: Potential

The largest circle represents Potential, encompassing the entire field of possible actions. This outer circle has the Choicecircle orbiting around its circumference, symbolizing the multitude of options within the field of potential.

The Disc and Its Layers

The disc at the center of the Cosmogram is divided into realms represented as concentric rings, similar to the rings of a tree trunk. Each plane is a ring layered outward, sharing the same center where the performer is placed. The realms are encased in a sphere titled Polycentricity, indicating their simultaneous and mutual influence on the world and each other.

1. Innermost Realm: Ashe
   • Represents action that manifests change. Ashe is the principle of dynamic energy and power that drives transformation.
2. Second Realm: Memory
   • Surrounding the innermost realm, memory serves as a reservoir of historical and cultural knowledge across generations.
3. Third Realm: The People
   • Encompasses the interactions and exchanges with other people, plants, animals, and more. This realm is bound in time and where identity, meaning, and merit are created and affirmed. Africana spirituality embraces a reciprocal relationship between the material body and the spirit world, intertwining spirituality and embodiment.
4. Fourth Realm: The Ancestral
   • Represents the ability of the Africana Dancing Body to break open time. Rhythmic and movement practices disrupt linear time, allowing ancestral spirits to engage with the living. This realm emphasizes the connection between physical movement and spiritual exchange.
5. Outermost Realm: The Divine
   • The realm where deities and the divine reside, characterized by their anthropomorphic powers. This realm facilitates socialization with the divine.

Note: Although these realms are depicted in layers, they intertwine and coexist in real life. The performer and their actions, guided by Ashe and memory, navigate these realms through dance, drumming, song, word, and gesture. This interaction is represented by a line that cuts across all realms, symbolizing the fluid navigation facilitated by these artistic and ritual actions.

The Three Spheres: Polycentric, Polyrhythm, Polydimensional

Separate from the disc, three spheres are layered atop it, connected by nodes titled Liminal. These spheres represent the guiding philosophies and practices enabling multi-realm existence:

1. Polycentric (Top):
   • Refers to the polycentric orientation of the body and its movement, but also to music and other forms. Polycentricity involves multiple centers of influence co-creating simultaneously, where all parties contribute and are central. This mode of co-existence and co-creation represents an ecological understanding of collaboration and symbiosis. Dissonance or disharmony, when facilitating co-existence, is not conflict but a multiplicity of possibilities, creating vital “pregnant” moments that can evolve in any direction.
2. Polyrhythm (Bottom Right):
   • Involves the active bringing forth and resolution of conflict. It poses problems and solves them simultaneously, investigating relations of proximity and distance, and navigating the spaces in between. Polyrhythm embodies the essence of presence and absence, which is foundational to the concept of relation in dance. Polyrhythmic expression requires dancers to maintain multiple rhythms and movements simultaneously, demonstrating their ability to navigate complex patterns and interactions.
3. Polydimensional (Bottom Left):
   • Represents the principle of wholism and multi-directionality, encompassing multi-realm or multi-plane existence and traversing. It entails the constant division of attention, which paradoxically strengthens presence rather than diminishing it. Presence is understood not as singular focus but as the unification of intent across multiple activities and attentions. Moving polyrhythmically and polycentrically, actions of multiplying and dividing activity along parallel processes, increases potential and is navigated by choice, brought about by intent.

These spheres are interconnected, creating nodes where they merge:

• Parallax: The intersection of Polyrhythm and Polydimensionality introduces a parallax effect in kinetic time perception, where the audience experiences multiple tempos and rhythms simultaneously. This multidimensional illusion engages viewers in a state of polytemporality, warping their sense of linear time.
• Spherical: The intersection of Polycentric and Polydimensionality emphasizes a spherical orientation in dance and movement. This involves curvilinear, multidimensional trajectories that engage the audience from all angles, creating a dynamic and immersive experience.

Integration of the Secular and the Sacred

The Aesthetic Cosmogram integrates both the secular and the sacred, acknowledging the profound interconnectedness of everyday life and spiritual practice in Africana traditions. The model’s layered realms—from Ashe to the Divine—highlight how secular actions and sacred interactions are seamlessly woven together. Dance, music, and performance serve as mediums through which the secular and sacred coexist and interact, allowing performers to navigate and harmonize these realms.

Morphing into a Spiral

The interconnecting activities of Dance, Drumming, Gesture, and Word, along with the liminal spaces they describe, morph the model into a spiral. This spiral represents the dynamic movement between realms, enabling the performer to jump from one plane to another. Though illustrated in a 2D image and described here, the Cosmogram should be understood as transcending more than five dimensions, reflecting the complexity and depth of Africana aesthetics.

Relationship to Africana Cosmology, Ontology, Axiology, and Epistemology

Africana Cosmology

The Cosmogram reflects Africana cosmology by emphasizing the interconnectedness of all things and the cyclical nature of time. The layered realms demonstrate how the physical and spiritual worlds are intertwined, aligning with the cosmological belief in the unity of the universe and the continuous interaction between the material and the divine.

Africana Ontology

Ontologically, the Cosmogram presents a holistic view of existence where being is dynamic, relational, and interconnected. It challenges compartmentalized Western notions of existence by highlighting the fluidity and multiplicity of realities, where spiritual and material presences coexist and influence one another.

Africana Axiology

In terms of axiology, the Cosmogram embodies values of communalism, respect for elders and ancestors, harmony with nature, and the integration of spirituality into daily life. It underscores the ethical and cultural principles that are central to Africana traditions, advocating for a balanced and harmonious way of living that honors both the past and the present.

Africana Epistemology

Epistemologically, the Cosmogram supports ways of knowing rooted in oral tradition, experiential learning, intuition, and collective wisdom. It values the transmission of knowledge through stories, rituals, and artistic expressions, recognizing the arts as vital channels for cultural and intellectual understanding.

Connection to Naim Akbar’s Rhythmic Patterns of Africana Personality

Naim Akbar’s exploration of the rhythmic patterns in African personality, as presented in his 1974 paper “Rhythmic Patterns in African Personality,” provides a deep understanding of the African worldview and its implications for personality development and cultural practices. Akbar highlights that African people perceive the world as a unified whole, where every element is interconnected.

• Universal Oneness and Interconnectedness: Akbar describes the African cosmos as a spider web, where disturbing one part affects the entire structure. This interconnectedness, or “vitalism,” suggests that all elements of nature are infused with a life force.
  • The Dogon people call this life force Nyama, linking actions and circumstances with the universe.
  • The Bambara refer to it as dya, unifying all things in nature.
  • The Akan describe it as Okra, a portion of the supreme life force in each person.
  • In the model I am calling on the version calles Ashe´

• Implications of Interconnectedness: Akbar notes that disorder arises when life rules are broken, leading to universal disorder. Community and collective rituals maintain harmony and balance. This perspective emphasizes the importance of social support and communal involvement in African cultural practices.

• Education and Rhythm: Akbar criticizes Western educational methods for Black students, advocating for environments that promote social interaction and collective learning. The call-and-response pattern exemplifies the communal nature of African personality, where individual identity is embedded within the collective. There is always a call and a response in polycentric orientation and in polyrhythm and even across the realms and dimensions.

Application for Scholars and Practitioners

For scholars, dancers, and choreographers, the Aesthetic Cosmogram is an invaluable tool for exploring and engaging with Africana Aesthetics. It provides a structured yet dynamic framework to understand and interpret the complex interplay of cultural, historical, and spiritual dimensions in Africana performance practices. The model can guide research, pedagogy, and creative practice, offering insights into how polycentric principles inform artistic and scholarly endeavors.

• Dancers and Choreographers: The Cosmogram aids in understanding the principles of polycentricity, polyrhythm, and polydimensionality in dance. By recognizing the interconnectedness of body movements and the multiple centers of influence, dancers can enhance their technique and expression. Choreographers can use the model to create complex, dynamic performances that embody the multiplicity and richness of Africana aesthetics.

• Scholars: The model provides a comprehensive analytical tool to study Africana aesthetics, cosmology, ontology, axiology, and epistemology. It encourages interdisciplinary approaches, connecting dance studies with cultural, historical, and philosophical inquiries.