Testimonial Digital Textiles: Material metaphors to think with care about reconciliation with four memory sewing circles in Colombia

Abstract

Research on textile crafting offers an opportunity to investigate reconciliation in a context that brings together every day practice, the realities of the conflict, the possibility of healing, and the rebuilding of social fabric. In this exploratory paper we deploy a methodological design which contributes to think about reconciliation with care through the practice of textile crafting in four memory sewing circles, integrated mostly by elderly women in different Colombian municipalities. This design implies the prototyping of a set of technologies that integrate digital components to various handcrafted textiles with the ability to digitally embody reconciliation in the selected sites, and also contribute to the interconnection between these sites. Specifically, the project is oriented towards the collaborative design of textile-digital objects, as testimonial digital textiles which allow research to be conducted in the Colombian context.