certain lives

certain lives is the research and performance project of David Farrow. As an organizer in the New York experimental electronic scene for six years, David's curation highlights queer experimental music at the edges of noise, ambient, and dance. Their performance practice centers live hardware and DJing to accentuate rhythms existing in nature through dub and techno. They have held fellowships at ISSUE Project Room and Columbia University. In May 2026, they completed their PhD in Music at Columbia University with a dissertation entitled “ephemeral autonomy: the politics of place in illegal art space.” Their writing has been published in mnemotope, Anthropology and Humanism, Current Musicology, tinymixtapes, various zines, and on their blog certainlives.com.