School
for
Poetic
Computation
What does it mean to reclaim what was already taken? In this discussion-based class, students examine bootlegging across colonial and digital histories through readings, lectures, and case studies. This is an intermediate to advanced seminar for those with prior experience in Black, cultural, or media studies.
Images courtesy of teachers.
This is a class made for BIPOC participants who will be prioritized in the application review process.
Stealing Back the Archive examines bootlegging as a legal, conceptual and vernacular practice, tracing how its meaning shifts from the colonial period to the digital age.
Through lectures and dialog sessions, this class situates bootlegging within the intermingled histories of colonial extraction, plantation production, global distribution, and the circulation of cultural property. Students will learn how law has paradoxically structured who can own, steal, sell, or access raw materials, manufacture and production space culture and its assets.
Drawing from Black studies, legal theory, sound and archive studies, and feminist and anti-colonial scholarship, this class approaches bootlegging not as deviation but as method—one that exposes the contradictions of intellectual property, archives, and value under racial capitalism.
By the end of the class, students will develop frameworks for analyzing ownership, extraction, and redistribution across cultural and media systems.
Week 1: Introduction — Bootlegging, the Language of Theft
Readings
Week 2: Means of Production and Colonial Extraction
Readings
Week 3: Absolute Right to Exclude: Ownership, Intellectual Property, Racial Economies, and Distribution.
Readings
Week 4: Radical Distribution: Taking, Slinging, Intervention, and Underground Economies
Readings
Week 5: Stolen, Shared, Sold: Sonic Archivability and the Politics of Access after Annihilation
Readings
Watching
Listening
As a heavy reading course, students should have prior experience or familiarity in Black studies, cultural studies, media studies, art history, music, or related fields. Students can expect to spend 3-6 hours outside of class engaging readings alongside cultural case studies.
Students must have a working knowledge of file sharing systems for receiving materials.
This class may be for you if you:
This class may NOT be for you if you:
Kandis Williams is a visual artist whose practice spans collage, performance, writing, publishing, and curating, and explores and deconstructs critical theory around race, nationalism, authority, and eroticism. Her work focuses on the body as a site of experience, which is simultaneously co-opted as symbol. Williams is the founder and editor-at-large of Cassandra Press, an artist-run publishing and educational platform producing lo-fi printed matter, classrooms, projects, artist books, and exhibitions. The platform’s intention is to spread ideas, distribute new language, propagate dialogue centering ethics, aesthetics, femme driven activism, and black scholarship.
Jaylyn is an interdisciplinary artist who follows their creative impulses wherever they lead, embracing curiosity over specialization. Her explorations span filmmaking, food, 3D modeling, writing, and design. With a love for observing the world and imagining new possibilities, she is passionate about uncovering the social underpinnings of her favorite subjects—film, video games, and pop music—and how their broad appeal shapes and reflects our world. Her work often explores connection, intimacy, and technology. Jaylyn was a contributing artist to the Open Source Afro Hair Library, a project dedicated to improving representation of Afro-textured hair in video gaming and fostering community among Black artists.
they/she
· instagram
Applications open until Applications closed on April 27, 2026.
You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on May 11, 2026. Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.
For 5 classes, it costs $750 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.
SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.
For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.
Interested in more learning opportunities at the School for Poetic Computation? Join our newsletter to stay up to date on future sessions and events, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Support our programming through scholarships. Get in touch over email.