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Weaving Huancavilca Memory. Co-design experience for the conservation of ancestral textile practices

Abstract:

This paper presents the experiences of cultural, artistic and visual exchange developed during a year of train-ing in pre-Hispanic vertical loom weaving, given by an artisan from Chanduy (Ecuador) to academics and students of the Faculty of Art, Design and Audiovisual Communication (FADCOM) of the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral in Guayaquil. This is a participatory action research (PAR), which uses ethnography, participant observation and the weaver's life story in the context of a pilot project of the Feminism, Crafts, Design and Art (FADA) research group. These "practicipative" experiences (a term coined by the authors) are approached from the perspective of co-design, with a double perspective: technical, through the record-ing of knowledge about an autochthonous type of ancestral weaving on the verge of extinction, and visual, documenting symbolic textile patterns. With this, we seek to value the huancavilca memory, through the co-design of products that position and contribute to the conservation of handicrafts woven on a vertical loom.