Often perceived as an external and distant import to our realities, technology has historically been closely linked to a singular and global model of “progress”. Technology has thus positioned itself as a metric of development and progress with narrow and speci#c codes and canons. These canons have generally come from the so-called “developed world” or “Global North” that encompasses territories and populations such as the United States, Europe and Japan among others. But what can be the technologies and progresses that emerge from our contexts? Beyond trying to prove that we are “civilized” and overcoming the urge of needing to catch up to the forms of development of the so-called #rst world, how can we examine, appreciate, push and stretch situated knowledges, beyond copy-cating, without reflections, imported global models? Even if in our contexts they may not make much sense.
If we trace the word digital back to its root, we would realize that digital does not only come from the numerical or quanti#able but rather refers to “#ngers”. It is for this reason that decimal systems abound, as most humans have 10 #ngers. The situation would be different if we had 13 #ngers or 7. It is thus that digital technologies can also be understood as embodied technologies too, where the body serves as an interface to the ways in which we render the constructs of what we call “Reality”.
In 1982, while receiving his Nobel Prize for Literature, Gabriel García Márquez, a major reference in what we know as Magic Realism, delivered a speech called The Solitude of Latin America. Renowned for his novel 100 Years of Solitude which combines so-called reality with so-called #ction, in this speech he basically describes that we have not yet found the means to render our realities believable. But this is not only the Solitude of Latin America, it could very well be the Solitude of the African Continent, South Asia or Southeast Asia. We have aspired to the cloud of globalism and its homogenising power, and before the great trees in front of us, we have forgotten the forests, jungles and Local Area Networks or LAN·SCAPES within which we #nd ourselves. Wishing to connect with the world and the planet, we have forgotten that all this time we could have paid attention to our roots and connected through them. Because the Baobab of the African continent, the Ceiba of Abya Yala and the Banyan Tree of Asia all intersect and meet through their roots, through InterTropical rhizomatic networks for a lateral exchange of nutrients, pulses and repositories of knowledges. We can connect through our differences by breaking the digital monoculture of globalism and cultivate and harvest techno-diversity and perma-computation. That is why we ask, how might we connect through our roots?
Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is a root vegetable or tuber that is an important source of carbohydrates in tropical regions. Also known as yucca, manioc, or tapioca, as a material it offers a wide range of textures and (in-) consistencies. Fried, crispy, mashed: cassava takes the form of flour in farinha and farofa, fermented as bobolo in Cameroon, noodles in Indonesia, tapioca pearls in bubble tea in Taiwan and a myriad of other con#gurations in tropical regions.
YuKéSabe Lab is a space for research, reflection and envisioning around nets and roots. Its name emerges as a creol or pidgin linguistic approach in an attempt to connect yucca and cassava while posing the question “What you know?” in what could be interpreted as a caribbean spanish.
With the intention of turning the net as a verb, and re-connoting the way of netting by means of roots, two roundtables and a laboratory are presented as an offering.
How do we establish dialogues between knowledges, protocols and time-honored technologies with contemporary devices, infrastructures and systems?
Roots (roundtable)
Cassava as an interTropical rhizomatic connector
WITH Manuela del Alma, Immy Mali, Elia Nurvista & jpgs
- Thursday, August 22 6-7:15pm - ODEON
In this gathering we will establish root connections and explore what we can learn from yucca / cassava as we search for common grounds in shifting sands. Yucca will thus be a platform for sticking together, holding space, stretching time, beating polyrhythms, chewing ideas and digesting emotions.
YuKéSabe (laboratory)
WITH Manuela del Alma, Laura Garrido & jpgs
- Thursday 22nd August 7:30-9pm - ODEON -
In this space we explore the proli#c materiality of cassava and its discursive potential, when we understand it as a technology capable of rooting situated knowledges and connecting pluriversal worlds. We will develop together a series of processes and experiments that will take the form of a recipe book of textures and a repository of flavors.
Nets (roundtable)
Fibers, knots, quilts and ways of netting.
WITH Paola Andrea Attama - Tyukuyu, Isabella Celis Campos, Eliana Sánchez
Aldana & jpgs
- Friday 23rd August 6-7:15pm - Planetarium Bogotá -
Often representations of networks present nodes simpli#ed as points and connections simpli#ed to straight lines. But what are the different knots and the varied textures and #bers in our social fabric?
More coming soon ++
