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Synapse

Synapse, from Black Beethoven, 2004
Video
Photo by Rob Strong.

In this video an older, white Beethoven morphs to a younger, black Beethoven and back again. There are no images of composer Ludwig van Beethoven, whose ancestry has been called into question by a disputed claim that he could have had a black ancestor. In the transition presented in Synapse, Adkins provides no answers, but asks viewers to question our knowledge and assumptions regarding the culture of classical music and racial identity.