Matrilineage is an archive of stories about technology. Each story reflects on a technological development that has been life-changing, a technological dependency/necessity, or an object of personal meaning.
The project started as a dialogue between four generations of women in my family. I was particularly interested in discovering how different generations of women related to and thought about technology. Earlier generations focused both on innovations that afforded change in their lives and technologies of necessity, rather than recreation. Younger women take many of these earlier inventions for granted, as domestic labor has grown to be less physical and more mechanized. As such, many of their stories focus more on leisure.
One piece of technology unifies the women in my family: the sewing machine. Each generation has an intimate relationship this particular machine, although for my great-grandmother an industrial sewing machine was part of her livelihood and also a very dangerous enterprise. My grandmother, mom, sister, and I find sewing relaxing and enjoyable -- for our labor can be creative and is not a necessity.
The purpose of this archive is to expand this conversation to a larger community. What technology has meaning in your life? Share your story.