(de)cypher—dark notes on the culture is a black studies journal, experimental thought-space, and creative incubator devoted to the confrontational practice and study of black art-making, broadly construed. Founded in 2022, this project emerged in response to a perceived lack of critical engagement with both the dynamism and pitfalls of black aesthetic inventiveness against the backdrop of rising political turmoil. Our approach to black aesthetics is indebted to Jamaican critic, writer, and playwright, Sylvia Wynter, who demanded black studies practitioners think long and hard about what art does in the world.

(de)cypher publishes, interviews, and offers creative consulting services to artists and cultural organizations looking to push their practice towards the unimaginable. Deploying our experimental ‘dark decipherment’ practice, we collaborate with artists to care-fully deconstruct the philosophical orientation, ethical intention, and desired messaging underpinning an their project(s). With open hearts and minds, our exploration together will unsettle the very ground of their thought to rebuild their practice of creative thinking, itself.