Georgia’s First Afrofuturism Studio Opens In Underground Atlanta

A new exhibit is coming to Underground Atlanta. A tech entrepreneur has soft-launched Subsume Studios, a space dedicated to Afrofuturism, over Labor Day weekend in the downtown hub.

Dedren Snead’s vision is to champion the revitalized tourist attraction by building his studio to promote art, culture, and technological advancement within the city. Afrofuturism has emerged as a prevalent theme for artists and those within the technological, engineering, and business industries.

Deeming his studio “the world’s first Afrofuturism lab,” his mission with this innovative space is to build “a template for the solutions of tomorrow.” In conversation with Atlanta News First, his optimal timeline is to open by February of the upcoming year.

His target demographic is young people of color, specifically Black people, as he plans to uplift this age group’s unique talent and imagination to foster his incubator for progress.

“We’re looking at a way and a space that Black stories and experiences are portrayed — past, present, and future. Such as AI machine learning. Looking at how that can portray into making sure that Black stories exist in all mediums. And so what we’re looking at is building data science, building engineers, but also building a creative class of Atlanta to be a part of the narratives of tomorrow.”

As he embarks on this lofty goal, the entrepreneur anticipates using crowdfunding to make this endeavor a reality. At the top of October, Snead will launch a fundraising campaign for communal donations and businesses to sponsor Subsume Studios for its building development and equipment needs.

The space will hopefully be used by those within and beyond the academic sphere, all sharing the same purpose of collaborating for the advancement of society in an equitable capacity.

“The idea is that understanding needs to be accessible to everyone, and living in a city such as Atlanta that has all of this technology, all of this culture[e], and all of this experience, why do we not have a space where the community can come together and galvanize those experiences to change the future for us all,” shared Snead.