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Ancestral Connections

This workgroup aims to investigate the colonial implications embedded in network technologies through the materiality of fiber and the practice of weaving. Grounded in the histories and material traditions of the Kalinago Territory and the broader Caribbean, the research examines how indigenous weaving practices, basketry, and fiber arts can inform more regenerative, non-extractive approaches to technological infrastructures. Engaging with textile structure offers a tangible entry point into the often intangible realities of digital infrastructure. Through cross-disciplinary artistic methods, it seeks to uncover new ways of conceptualizing networks, circularity, and resilience, using bio-based materials and ancestral techniques to imagine ecological alternatives to current digital and material systems.

Questions:

• How can the materiality of fiber and the practice of weaving reveal colonial implications embedded in network technologies?

• In what ways can a situated perspective on fibers inspire alternative, more equitable and regenerative forms and aesthetics of digital connectivity?