Annie Mackinnon

This introductory zine begins to map out convergences and issues of sustainability and social justice within Industry 4.0, and questions how to build more equitable futures.

Featuring interviews conducted between November 2020 and May 2021 with Angela Chan, Brooke Roberts-Islam, Florence Okoye, Jessica Graves, Orsola de Castro, Sam Chester and Xiaowei Wang.

‘Biting on the Same Tail’ is an experiment in imagining new motifs to critically think through the ways in which temporalities and ecologies intertwine with human-made technical systems. Starting from the concept that language and knowledge systems shape and make our world, this body of work reflects on how crisis inducing systems such as capitalism and Eurocentrism have produced philosophical barriers that prevent both symbiotic thinking with the environment, and imagining diverse futures outside of current crises. 

The text attempts to rethink the role of technology in this: a role which has frequently been leveraged to that of a saviour, an escape route from the crises from which it stems. Rejecting the innovation centric drive of design thinking, this essay instead begins to map out interconnecting systems, narratives, spaces in-between, and philosophies that shape new modes of thinking with and perceiving environments and machines.

‘Slips, Misrememberings, Dust’ is a video trio that grows out of research from Zine 001 and Zine 002 of this project. Creating visual landscapes that flow between digital renders and filmed footage, the videos build up a series of motifs and relics that explore the relations between machines, environments and futures. 

Animation support from Alex Mackinnon 

Sound Design in collaboration with Kelman Duran