“Beyond the Computational: The Social in wire-bending in Trinidad & Tobago” at 4S 2019, New Orleans

September 2019 – In this talk, I bring to the fore debates and controversies in the Trinidad Carnival to highlight the historical, social, and political frames within which the craft of wire-bending exists as discussing one without the other would be a disservice to them both. In this talk I demonstrate how theory, social lenses, design, and computation, can revive and recast this dying practice and its communities. Theoretically framing it so that its history and importance in resisting colonialism and oppression can continue, and new ways of engaging can be framed to include and inform digital technology and changing social and technological conditions.