Output
What we made
Ancestral AI Chapter
The Ancestral AI chapter invites us to rethink the timeline of AI development — showing how modern data practices could integrate ancestral values like community, reciprocity, and collective memory.
From Polynesian navigation systems to knotted-string devices, the chapter highlights approaches that treat data not as a resource to be extracted, but as a form of heritage to be preserved and enriched over time. Challenging the idea that progress lies only ahead, Ancestral AI argues for moving beyond short-term metrics of “success” and “innovation” to consider the long-term impact of AI systems across generations.
Ancestral AI Zine
Pasts, Presents, Futures - A zine about Ancestral AI made in collaboration with Internet Teapot
This zine compiles the creative contributions, exchanges, and discussions from the Ancestral AI Zine-making Workshop held on August 10, 2024, at the Stadsarchief Amsterdam. In this workshop, we drew inspiration from decolonial theory, the wisdom and practices from past generations, and our own situated experiences and histories.
Ancestral AI Artwork
The Sea Dreamed of Me by Thiago Britto
What dreams might have crossed the Atlantic before Columbus? What memories live in our bodies that history books have forgotten? These questions ripple through “The Sea Dreamed of Me,” a four-part film by Brazilian artist Thiago Britto. Unfolding along the Bantu-Kongo cosmogram, the story reimagines Black travel to the Americas — drifting through the webs of time in cycles rather than lines.
“The Sea Dreamed of Me” is a work of critical fabulation that treats AI as “synthetic memory.” By crafting prompts that subvert algorithmic biases, Thiago moves beyond colonial narratives to produce images of Black freedom.
Conversation on Ancestral AI
Gustavo Nogueira de Menezes in conversation w/ Monique Lemos and Thiago Britto
As part of the Ancestral AI research, we spoke to Monique Lemos and Thiago Britto. How can ancestral knowledge shape the future of AI? What might it mean to be a good AI ancestor?
Related projects.
(2019-25©)
