liquid blackness ISSUE 11.1 CFP – “FOR THE RECORD”

liquid blackness: journal of aesthetics and black studies 11, no. 1, Spring 2027

Submissions due January 15, 2026

“For the record” is a preface. A seemingly redundant utterance that, nevertheless, feels essential for those on the cusp of something big. For, or in service of, the record, plans for both worldmaking and worldbreaking are briefly paused in anticipation of the record’s retelling. Thus, this phrase is the first step in a series of negotiations—cordial or confrontational, perhaps pro forma but always informal—about who, what, and when the record will show/tell. In the quintessentially worldmaking and world breaking practice of black study, record-keeping is, on the one hand, an affirmation of history and existence in the present, a steppingstone for self-advocacy, as well as a resource for pedagogy and continuity. On the other, however, the record is subject to double-entry bookkeeping: it determines what can be expended in the exchange economy that dictates our professional lives.

Black study is an insurgent action in which we practice the world we want to live in and, as a result, anticipate a criminal ongoinness the police will come out to quell. Simply put, you know you’re doing it when they try to shut it down. Thus, the things we say and do “for the record” are, at once, meant as a brush off to the (police) record, and at the same time, how we intend to preserve this enduring fragility. Ultimately, it is important to decide just how straight we want to set “things” in service of fugitive black creative praxis that we want to outlive us.

We propose this journal issue as a space for the record, and, to the extent that’s possible, also off the record. It is inspired by artists for whom even when “the object”—as a specific and quantifiable end product—is not in the world, the process is. Indeed, the process is “the thing” that will endure with or without the record. Therefore, our care for the record is not simply a response to the conditions of compulsory transparency or an archival fetish, but an attentiveness to what’s kept between us so that it has the capacity to continue without us.

We invite submissions that consider what it means to start here: to preface artistic production, curation, and research as being “for the record.” What is a commitment to candidness and clarity that begins with deflection and a strategic disregard for the official record? How do we signal our readiness to stick with and stand by the process? We welcome submissions that explore a range of process-focused topics that address the technologies, temporalities, and performativities of an aesthetic practice for what comes next. Whether it’s on the record or not.

We invite submissions to think expansively about “the record” from a variety of disciplinary formations, theoretical or practical inclinations, and modes of praxis that engage with, creatively respond to, as well as add to the following:

• Permanent and Impermanent Records

  • Informal archives and transmission lines

  • Intergenerationality, intuition, and initiation

  • Gathering practices

  • Rehearsal

  • Speaking up; sounding out; sending off

  • Stable and unstable recording materials

• Broken Records and Other Modes of Deflection, Obfuscation and Withholding

  • Rethinking the ends and the means

  • Profligacy, expenditure, generosity

  • Crate digging; tape-mixing; sampling

  • The lost and found

  • Backmasking

  • Secrets and rumors

  • The idiosyncratic; the inside joke; the aside

• Records—Held, Released, Revisited

  • Citational practices

  • The unseen and taken for granted

  • The minor; the outcast; the emergent

Submissions Due: January 15, 2026

Please submit at: https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/dup-lbk

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Author Guidelines & Submission Information

• Submission Types:

  • Traditional essays: approx. 3,000-5,000 words (including footnotes)—all essays should be accompanied by at least one image. (Please consider “fair use” of visual materials included, as you draft your piece and please consult previous journal issues for inspiration on how to be in dialog with visual materials)

  • We welcome submissions of interviews framed through an introduction to the artist/theorist that engages relevant scholarly literature and/or creative practice. Before submitting, please send your inquiries/proposals to journalsubmissions@liquidblackness.com

  • Questions about the length, style, format of experimental submissions can be directed to journalsubmissions@liquidblackness.com

• liquid blackness follows the formatting and reference guidelines stipulated by The Chicago Manual of Style

• All submissions, solicited and unsolicited, will be peer-reviewed

• Media Specifications:

  • Media files such as video or sound clips, might be published as supplementary data. The following audio and video file types are acceptable as supplementary data files and supported by our online platform: .mp3, .mp4, .wav, .wma, .au, .m4a, .mpg, .mpeg, .mov, .avi, .wmv., html.

  • Executable files (.exe) are not acceptable.

  • There is no restriction on the number of files per article or on the size of files; however, please keep in mind that very large files may be problematic for readers with slow connection speeds.

  • Please ensure that each video or audio clip is called out in the text of the article, much like how a figure or table is called out: e.g., “see supplementary audio file 1.”

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About liquid blackness

liquid blackness: journal of aesthetics and black studies is an open-access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to readers or their institutions.

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