Horton-Stallings, LaMonda. _Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures_. The New Black Studies Series. University of Illinois Press, 2015. “By the end of Funk the Erotic, I hope to have provided evidence of how funk as a multisensory and multidimensional philosophy has been used in conjunction with the erotic, eroticism, and black erotica. Funk is the affect that shapes film, performance, sound, food, technology, drugs, energy, time, and the seeds of revolutionary ideas for various black movements.” (Horton-Stallings, 2015, p. 17) “Blossom is a sculptural installation of a tree growing out of a baby grand piano converted into a MIDI system piano with a knocked-over piano bench lying in a circular patch of dirt in which the tree is rooted. The piece refuses either/or binaries of dividing nature from culture, nature from technology, and precolonial natural institutions from modern cultural institutions. Blossom produces multiple meanings based on viewers’ perceptions of objectivity and subjectivity or privileging of the human and nonhuman.” (Horton-Stallings, 2015, p. 23) “viewers come to understand the nonhuman as a living being capable of creating culture as well as serving as an inspiration for art” (Horton-Stallings, 2015, p. 23)