Make your own hero [VIDEO]

Let's think of the Take Back The Tech (TBTT) camp in Nepal. About 50 feminists from different parts of the world: many ideas, experiences and emotions boiling, bouncing and growing in this effervescent environment. The facilitators invite us to an open space: sheets and markers are handed out so that whoever wants to can propose a workshop.

The list of workshops is long and interesting, but there is a proposal that just reading it makes me fall in love: a workshop to create a feminist heroine by Suki K. Manandhar.

There is a proposal that just reading it makes me fall in love: a workshop to create a feminist heroine by Suki K. Manandhar.

We work in two incredible sessions. In the first one, Suki invited a collective rain of ideas to create the profile of a feminist heroine. Between laughs, unveiling fantasies and dreaming of justice, ARSUKEIL was born—a non-binary character with the power to change the algorithms and return the data to those from whom it has been taken away by large corporations. Suki gave life to ARSUKEIL in a first sketch.

ARSUKEIL: Open Space Session on Making A Feminist Hero

In the second session—always in a collective and collaborative way—we created the first episode. Who would ARSUKEIL help? What villain would they face? How would one recover the stolen data?

While the voices of all added arguments and actions, Suki's pen drew lines, building vignettes and characters. On my phone, I recorded the process in photos. A free application did the rest.

This was creative, collaborative and feminist work. We enjoyed doing it together and building another world. 

This was creative, collaborative and feminist work. We enjoyed doing it together, and building another world.