Liberatory Technology + Digital Marronage
Project Description
Throughout Spring 2022, our research team explored liberatory technologies and forms of digital marronage as a part of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab
Liberatory: supports the increased freedom and wellbeing of marginalized people, especially Black people, outside of capitalism and settler-colonial power structures.
Technology: A tool used to accomplish a task.
Marronage: in honor of Marroon societies throughout the South and Caribbean, the act of removing oneself from enslavement, liberating one’s community and drawing resources to free more people outside of the colonial center.
Each week, we selected a different type of technology, completed readings about it, and collected liberatory forms of that tool in a GitHub repository. Based on our analysis throughout the semester, this Github functions as a liberatory technology toolbox for organizers and activists.
Recognizing that existing digital interventions aren’t always successful, we explored how to design technology centered on liberation and digital marronage while honoring community knowledge. We asked: how do individuals protect themselves from the state while also being able to dance in the sun? Our research culminated in this GitHub repository, a liberatory technology proposed by RAs, and a zine to present our research findings.
How to use this repository
In the /technologies folder above, you'll find the "liberatory" technologies that our team found and discussed throughout the semester. Some weeks it was hard to find, and some weeks we discussed problematic or harmful technologies instead. This repository is meant to serve as an artifact to our research, and an accessible list of technologies for activists and organizers to use in their work. These technologies aren't endorsed by the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab.
Access our Zine here
Point of Contact:
Payton Croskey: pcroskey@princeton.edu
Kenia Hale: kenia.hale@princeton.edu
Semester Schedule + Readings
Week 0: Preliminary Meeting
- Octavia’s Brood (introduction) - Walidah Imarisha, adrienne maree brown, & Sheree Renee Thomas
- Black Study, Black Struggle - Robin D. G. Kelley
- Race After Technology (Introduction) - Ruha Benjamin
- “Never Forgetting a Face” - Natasha Singer
- “The Digital Face” - Namwali Serpell
- Indigenous wisdom as a model for software design and development - Amelia Winger-Bearskin
- Technology & Ethos - Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)
- CITP Seminar: Tech in Conversation: Imagining Radical Tech Futures - Kenia Hale, Annika Hansteen-Izora, AM Darke, Ashley Jane Lewis
Week 1: Facial Recognition
Week 2: Voice Assistants
- Activate This 'Bracelet of Silence,' and Alexa Can't Eavesdrop - The New York Times
- Hi, Alexa. How Do I Stop You From Listening In On Me? - The New York Times
Week 3: Biometric Technologies
- Amazon's Halo Wearable Can Read Emotions. Is That Too Weird? - Bloomberg
- Introduction: #TravelingWhileTrans, Design Justice, and Escape from the Matrix of Domination · Design Justice
- Subversive: BioFashion for Black Lives
- Optional video from above paper - Can a Sensor-Laden Hoodie Protect Vulnerable Communities?
Week 4: Social Media
- 🌿 Tend to Your Digital Gardens: Flowers, Weeds, and All
- The Signals Research
- The Good Web: Competing Visions for the Future of Social Media
Week 5: Digital Collective Healing Spaces
- Breonna’s Garden
- Sandy Speaks
- Our America VR
- Metamorphosis
- Begin Prototype Brainstorming
Week 6, 7, 8
- Analysis + Zine + Prototype Building