#1 Ancestral Technology: a non-linear time capsule

Edition IMPAKT Festival 2026: Techno-Ancestrality
as part of my presentation during the panel “Transgenerational Counter-Coding”

Inspired by Brazilian indigenous writer, philosopher and activist Ailton Krenak, this zine departs from his provocation “the future is ancestral” and unfolds different non-linear ways of thinking through ancestral knowledge, time, technology, and futurity. Drawing from indigenous and global majority cultures and cosmologies including Aboriginal Dreamtime, Lakota ethics, Buddhist teachings, and traditional ecological knowledge, various writing prompts invite the reader to imagine their own vision and imagination of ancestral technologies. How might we relate differently to ourselves through these pluriversal ideas? How might we build better technologies and more inclusive worlds learning from philosophies stemming from non-Western cultures?

Download a copy and make this time capsule yourself: print on A4 double-sided (flip on the short side) and fold according to instructions here.

Credits:
Developed during Narrative Constellations at School for Poetic Computation (NYC), with the support of April Soetarman, Lee Beckwith, and the Winter 2026 Sunday cohort.

With inspiration from SALT translocal study kitchen (Winter 2026) by reschooling-with platform, hosted by Teresa Borasino, Shailoh Phillips, and guest teacher Camille Barton; and the annual conference of Skagen Institute of Transgressive Methods hosted by Futures + Literacies + Methods Lab at Utrecht University.

With thanks to photos by Ajeet Kumar and Artem Podrez via Pexels for the cover, plus RawPixel, iStock and Public Domain images for the card designs inside.

An incomplete bibliography:

  • Ancestral Future and Ideas to Postpone the End of the World, Ailton Krenak
  • Black Quantum Futurism (Moor Mother and Rasheedah Phillips)
  • Indigenous Technology Open Studio Series, Neema Githere
  • As We Have Always Done, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
  • Buddhist teachings by Thích Nhất Hạnh and other monks
  • Teachings by I-Ching, and Taoist philosophies, such as Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu
  • Aboriginal Dreamtime stories such as The Rainbow Serpent
  • Between Gaia and Ground, Elizabeth Povinelli and works of Karrabing Film Collective
  • Slow Technology Reader, edited by Carolyn F. Strauss
  • With thanks to various masterclasses and lectures from indigenous scholars from so-called Canada and Australia.