Celestial Threads

Discipline: GENERATIVE AI

Tools: Custom Trained AI Model

Speculative textile study blending archival astronomy and ancestral knowledge.

This experimental series reimagines telescope blueprints from the US Naval Observatory through the visual language of indigo-dyed textiles. Using generative AI, I combined archival star-mapping schematics with patterns inspired by Malian bogolanfini and Nigerian adire cloth; treating both as visual systems that hold knowledge across generations.

Research

The work draws from the Dogon people of Mali, whose ancient astronomical knowledge predated modern telescopes, as well as from research into the legacy of African women indigo dyers—who historically wielded immense social, political, and spiritual power. In some regions, their wealth and expertise were used to overturn colonial laws, organize vast trade networks, and even depose kings.

By blending blueprints with cultural textiles, this exploration treats both as forms of encoded knowledge—tools for storytelling, survival, and connection across time and place. In using generative AI to simulate textile patterns, the work reflects on technology itself as a contemporary form of weaving—a symbolic extension of our long-standing quest for autonomy, mobility, and understanding across worlds both seen and imagined.