eDUCATION & RESEARCH
In a socially engaged art practice, research is an interrogation. It is an antagonism of the imbalanced, silent contract that authorizes the extraction of energy without the reciprocal obligation of witness.
By emphasizing the everyday over the spectacle, we confront the "white noise" of subverted policy and the violent extraction of our current systems. We do not perform an act; we investigate the gathering. We transmute systemic friction into tangible pathways for fantastical liberation.
Researching the Liminal
A performance venue uses lighting and stages to force a hierarchy. Socially engaged research demands the liminal and the mundane. The aesthetics of social practice allow us the breadth to explore the "boring" labor—the travel, the rehearsal, the setup, the silence between notes, and the physical constraints of the room.
We reclassify the audience as a primary collaborator. Their presence and internal state are the final materials of the work. Thus the artist is not passively engaged but forced to reconcile if and how a system of morale and care, or lack there of, affects who comes int he space, who has been allowed to enter space, what the norms of the space force upon us by design or function. mediation as performance results in a collective listening experience that postures mundane resistance as the formidable foe against institutionally sanctioned violence.
ART 4900R: Sound and Noise as Social Practice
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga | Spring 2026
ART 4900R investigates the auditory environment as a site of social and institutional construction. Moving beyond traditional sound design, the course frames "process" as the primary medium, treating acoustic phenomena as tools for navigating community values, policy, and social practice.
Technical Frameworks & Methodology
The course provides a rigorous foundation in the mechanics of sound, establishing proficiency in professional field recording and Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) environments. We establish these technical skills as research instruments used to document and analyze the "unheard" textures of urban and institutional landscapes.
Students engage with two proprietary pedagogical frameworks:
The AYEYOTY Modular Pyramid: A 32-foot "Super-Black" sonic architecture that serves as a collective laboratory for recording and research.
The Adinkra Musical Code: A methodology that replaces traditional Western music theory with a system linking technical audio parameters—such as frequency and resonance—to social concepts of sovereignty and power.
Media Analysis & Relational Aesthetics
The curriculum is informed by my professional background in high-level media and network analysis, specifically regarding Xaxis (Black Box algorithms) and WPP/GroupM (Native TV advertising). We utilize these industry frameworks as an analytical layer to deconstruct how global media networks dictate social behavior.
By applying the principles of Relational Aesthetics to these systems, we evaluate human interconnectedness as a pathway toward communicative-inspired policy. The course challenges students to move past top-down "Creative Placemaking" and toward a state of Place-Being, where community voices are the foundational signal.
Conceptual Objectives
Formal Art Critique: Applying rigorous standards to ephemeral and sonic social works.
Alternative Imaginaries: Developing the ability to visualize and prototype social structures that exist outside current institutional norms.
Dialogic Access: Brokering entry points for public engagement with an emphasis on the ethics of care and community sovereignty.
The GW Hip Hop Ensemble: A Pedagogy of Phrased Resistance
The Context
The first performance-based Hip Hop education course in Washington, D.C., established at George Washington University. Under the direction of Zimbabwean emcee Dumi Right, the ensemble functioned as a laboratory for technical musicianship and cultural preservation.
The Objective
To move Hip Hop beyond theoretical observation into a rigorous physical and improvisational discipline. The goal was to master "phrasing"—those rhythmic nuances that defy verbal explanation but dictate the soul of the form.
The Execution
As Graduate Assistant, Tyler Andrew Lackey facilitated the development of muscle memory. The ensemble utilized performance as an improvisational exercise to register the depth of history within the body before the moment of performed improvisation occurred. This approach treated the "beat" as a physical archive, ensuring the performer was anchored in a lineage of sound yet still allowing flexibility in musicianship.
The Evidence
• The Somatic Archive: Technical phrasing is a physical history that must be performed to be understood.
• Pre-Improvisational Depth: True improvisation requires a registration of historical weight within the artist’s physical form before a single note is played.
Collaborators
Dumi Right (Zimbabwean Artist/Assistant Professor)
Loren Kajikawa (Director, Corcoran Music/Musicologist)
George Washington University
Investigating Sonic Architecture: Contrafaction and Inquiry
The Context
A research trajectory initiated as a contrafaction to the architectural inquiries of Andrea Dietz in D.C., now maturing into the Black Sonic Alchemy methodology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC).
The Objective
To investigate the physical imposition of architectural design and its non-visible impact on society. The inquiry exposes how formal art and urban design dictate the movement and disposition of marginalized bodies.
The Execution
The research shifted from the visible monuments of the capital to the invisible policies of containment. In a seminal lecture at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, Lackey interrogated the "politics of rest." The work revealed that suburban environments are designed to afford rest, while the sonic and architectural landscapes of the inner city are constructed to induce friction, behavioral exhaustion, and systemic noise.
The Evidence
• The Architecture of Rest: Rest is a resource distributed by caste; its absence is a deliberate tool of subverted policy.
• Non-Visible Imposition: Architectural design is a formal act of policy that dictates who is allowed to be at peace and who is conditioned for conflict.
Collaborators
Andrea Dietz (Architectural Researcher)
Siobhan Rigg (Social Practice Artist, Graduate Advisor)
Corcoran School of the Arts and Design
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC)
City of Chattanooga
Echoes of Tomorrow: sonic afrofutures Graduate Thesis Exhibition
The Context
A multi-modal graduate thesis and installation at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. The work served as a culminating interrogation of how memory, sound, and systemic policy converge within the Black experience.
The Objective
To document the "unseen" labor of social practice and to prove that the "art" exists in the preparation and the persistence, not just the final performance. The goal was to transmute the friction of the American academy into a vessel for future liberation.
The Execution
The project focused on the artifacts of labor. Rather than presenting a polished, detached spectacle, Lackey highlighted the mundane: the travel, the sound-checks, the physical exhaustion of the setup, and the silence between the notes. This was the "boring" work made visible. By archiving these moments, the thesis challenged the audience to witness the cost of creation within a system of extraction.
The Evidence
• Labor as Artifact: The rehearsal and the setup are not "pre-art"; they are the art. They are the primary evidence of the artist’s resistance against calcified traditions.
• The Echo: Performance is ephemeral, but the "echo"—the lingering impact on the listener’s internal state—is the permanent material that shifts the timeline of the community.
Collaborators
• Corcoran School of the Arts and Design
• George Washington University
The Transformational and Charismatic Leadership of Malcolm X
The Context
A research project and academic inquiry presented at the 2022 George Washington University Research Showcase. The work analyzed the mechanics of leadership through the lenses of Organizational Science and Social Practice.
The Objective
To move beyond the historical caricature of Malcolm X and interrogate the specific architecture of his influence. The research sought to define how charisma and transformational leadership can be utilized as tools to dismantle international caste systems and systemic marginalization.
The Execution
By auditing the oratorical and organizational strategies of Malcolm X, Lackey demonstrated how a leader can transmute communal friction into a unified, justice-oriented anthem. The research highlighted the role of "integrity" and "vision" in facilitating radical self-actualization within a colonized context. The work was awarded top honors, validating the intersection of Black radical thought and formal academic analysis.
The Evidence
• The Charismatic Blueprint: Leadership is a social practice that requires the orchestration of community energy toward the destruction of calcified traditions.
• Institutional Recognition: The winning of the GW Research Showcase signaled a shift in the American academy’s willingness to acknowledge the rigor of Black revolutionary methodology.
Collaborators
• George Washington University (Organizational Sciences)
• The GW Research Showcase Committee
Afrofuturism and Spirituality: The Colonial Nexus
The Context
A research paper and theoretical inquiry archived in the George Washington University institutional repository. The work serves as a critical examination of the historical and spiritual architecture that sustains colonial power.
The Objective
To interrogate the structural and psychological connections between colonial governance and the institutional church. The inquiry sought to expose how these two forces collaborated to create a system of extraction that targets the Black spirit and the Black body. It asks how the "architecture of containment" was first drafted in the pews and the colonial offices to dictate the current timelines of marginalized people.
The Execution
The research analyzed the "white noise" of subverted theology—the ways in which spiritual narratives were contorted to justify extraordinarily violent extraction. Lackey utilized the lens of Afrofuturism not as an escape, but as a diagnostic tool to identify these calcified traditions. The work proved that the "silent contract" between the church and state served to limit the imagination of the oppressed, effectively pre-determining their future through systemic spiritual friction.
The Evidence
• The Colonial Church as Infrastructure: The church functioned as a primary media channel for colonial policy, using spiritual authority to enforce the architecture of containment.
• Afrofuturism as Reclamation: The research positions Afrofuturism as a necessary technology to dismantle these religious-colonial ties, allowing for a spiritual self-actualization that exists outside of extracted timelines.
Collaborators
• George Washington University (Institutional Repository)
• The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design
Black Sonic Alchemy
The Context
A proprietary methodology and interdisciplinary framework developed by Tyler Andrew Lackey, MFA, and archived in the Library of Congress. It serves as the spiritual and intellectual motor of the AYEYOTY firm, currently applied through the ART 4900R curriculum at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The Objective
To utilize the artifacts of sound and space as conduits for a timeline shift. The goal is to acknowledge that Black spirituality and Afrofuturism are not merely aesthetic choices, but strategic technologies used to survive and subvert extraordinarily violent extraction. Alchemy, in this sense, is the process of transmuting the "white noise" of subverted policy into tangible pathways for liberation.
The Execution
Through Black Sonic Alchemy, the practice investigates the sonic and environmental markers of systemic friction—the noise that dictates the architecture of containment. It demands a deep attunement to the "boring" and liminal parts of creation: the rehearsal as ritual, the setup as sacred labor, and the silence as a site of resistance. In this framework, the artist and the listener collaborate to "contort" the current timeline, using technical improvisation and woodwind acoustics to dismantle the hierarchy between the stage and the street.
The Evidence
• Transmutation of Friction: Systemic friction—the stress of navigating colonial and architectural impositions—is captured and converted into a frequency of joy and communal self-actualization.
• The Archive of Persistence: The work is not found in the ephemeral performance, but in the persistent labor of the "echo"—the lasting internal shift in the collaborator-listener.
Collaborators
• The Library of Congress
• University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC)
• U.S. Department of State (OneBeat 13)
