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ANCESTRAL COMPUTATION assembles works that counter the epistemes of Western technoscience, from across the SWANA region and its diasporic time-spaces. These works call forth ancestral intelligences, inheriting forms of worldmaking surfaced from the lacunae of omissive datasets and archives of dispossession. They traverse algorithmic dream divination; develop tools for upending classificatory protocols; evade technologies of capture; and conjure precolonial deities through radio transmissions. They invoke alternate temporalities, rejecting the consignment of non-Western technologies to the dustbins of media history.
ANCESTRAL COMPUTATION is curated by Mashinka Firunts Hakopian and is co-presented by ArteEast and e-flux. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents over 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. The program will be presented in-person at e-flux, on October 21st starting at 7 pm, for more information visit e-flux.com. The screening will be followed by a discussion between artist Nouf Aljowaysir and the curator. The full ANCESTRAL INTELLIGENCES program will be available online on artearchive.org from October 21 - 31, 2025. This program expands on the screening Ancestral Intelligences, hosted at Cambridge University by Cambridge Film & Screen and Cambridge Visual Culture. Ancestral Intelligences was curated by Mashinka Hakopian in conversation with Kareem Estefan.
Where Am I From? أنا من وين؟ directed by Nouf Aljowaysir
Where Am I From? (Ana Min Wein?) is a short film and visual diary that constructs the director's genealogical journey using two different voices, her own and an AI narrator. After moving to the US from Saudi Arabia at a young age, Nouf explores her identity by tracing her childhood and family memories. While the AI character supports her journey, it reveals stereotypes and biases derived from its training and algorithmic composition. By juxtaposing oral storytelling against AI, Where Am I From? exposes the reduction of Nouf's culture and eradication of her ancestors' collective memories.
About the Filmmaker
Nouf Aljowaysir is a new media artist and product designer at Medium based in Brooklyn. She splits her time between the art and tech world to study how technologies are designed and their consequential impacts on society and culture. Her artistic research and work specifically focuses on our changing relationship with algorithms. She poses intimate questions to tools of "intelligence", using the exchange to reflect not only on herself but also on how these systems shape our ways of seeing and thinking. Nouf has been awarded residencies at ThoughtWorks Arts and Somerset House. Her work has been exhibited internationally at galleries and festivals such as the Centre Pompidou, M+ Museum, CPH:DOX, and the Tribeca Film Festival, among others.
- Year2022
- Runtime12:29
- LanguageEnglish, Arabic
- CountryUnited States, Saudi Arabia
- GenreShort Film / Documentary
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorNouf Aljowaysir
- ScreenwriterNouf Aljowaysir
- ProducerNicolás Escarpentier
- CastNouf Aljowaysir
- CinematographerNicolás Escarpentier, Sarra'a Alshehhi
- EditorNouf Aljowaysir, Nicolás Escarpentier
- AnimatorNoura Adel
- Sound DesignNicolás Escarpentier
ANCESTRAL COMPUTATION assembles works that counter the epistemes of Western technoscience, from across the SWANA region and its diasporic time-spaces. These works call forth ancestral intelligences, inheriting forms of worldmaking surfaced from the lacunae of omissive datasets and archives of dispossession. They traverse algorithmic dream divination; develop tools for upending classificatory protocols; evade technologies of capture; and conjure precolonial deities through radio transmissions. They invoke alternate temporalities, rejecting the consignment of non-Western technologies to the dustbins of media history.
ANCESTRAL COMPUTATION is curated by Mashinka Firunts Hakopian and is co-presented by ArteEast and e-flux. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents over 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. The program will be presented in-person at e-flux, on October 21st starting at 7 pm, for more information visit e-flux.com. The screening will be followed by a discussion between artist Nouf Aljowaysir and the curator. The full ANCESTRAL INTELLIGENCES program will be available online on artearchive.org from October 21 - 31, 2025. This program expands on the screening Ancestral Intelligences, hosted at Cambridge University by Cambridge Film & Screen and Cambridge Visual Culture. Ancestral Intelligences was curated by Mashinka Hakopian in conversation with Kareem Estefan.
Where Am I From? أنا من وين؟ directed by Nouf Aljowaysir
Where Am I From? (Ana Min Wein?) is a short film and visual diary that constructs the director's genealogical journey using two different voices, her own and an AI narrator. After moving to the US from Saudi Arabia at a young age, Nouf explores her identity by tracing her childhood and family memories. While the AI character supports her journey, it reveals stereotypes and biases derived from its training and algorithmic composition. By juxtaposing oral storytelling against AI, Where Am I From? exposes the reduction of Nouf's culture and eradication of her ancestors' collective memories.
About the Filmmaker
Nouf Aljowaysir is a new media artist and product designer at Medium based in Brooklyn. She splits her time between the art and tech world to study how technologies are designed and their consequential impacts on society and culture. Her artistic research and work specifically focuses on our changing relationship with algorithms. She poses intimate questions to tools of "intelligence", using the exchange to reflect not only on herself but also on how these systems shape our ways of seeing and thinking. Nouf has been awarded residencies at ThoughtWorks Arts and Somerset House. Her work has been exhibited internationally at galleries and festivals such as the Centre Pompidou, M+ Museum, CPH:DOX, and the Tribeca Film Festival, among others.
- Year2022
- Runtime12:29
- LanguageEnglish, Arabic
- CountryUnited States, Saudi Arabia
- GenreShort Film / Documentary
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorNouf Aljowaysir
- ScreenwriterNouf Aljowaysir
- ProducerNicolás Escarpentier
- CastNouf Aljowaysir
- CinematographerNicolás Escarpentier, Sarra'a Alshehhi
- EditorNouf Aljowaysir, Nicolás Escarpentier
- AnimatorNoura Adel
- Sound DesignNicolás Escarpentier