Laila Abu-Ghaida | WHERE DO WE GO: New approach to combining tradition and digital media in Palestinian resistance.

 
The Where Do We Go virtual zine explores traditional and digital Palestinian activism. In addition to its zine, this company has a clothing line that combines Palestinian embroidery with digitally coded embroidery to stitch together two types of resistance. Often, Palestinian narratives are hijacked, destroyed, or ignored. Due to physical and mental displacements, there is confusion surrounding the idea of a shared cultural identity.
Palestinian women have been rewriting and establishing their narratives and protesting through tatreez for centuries. Their embroidery expresses resistance to occupation and embraces their own identity. Tatreez has evolved from a design into a social, economic, and political tool. The hobby helped establish a sense of community as many shared it and practiced together. Stitches became a symbol of protest. Today, protests are most common online. The role of digital media activism is highly relevant, not just for Palestinians. The ability to share your narrative through actions such as reposting infographics on your Instagram story or retweeting protests is now possible. However, social media can also be censored and have favored algorithms. Palestinian narratives have been severely restricted on social media platforms such as Instagram.
This project comprises an Instagram-based zine, a website, embroidery samples coded in Processing, and clothing designs. The zine aims to shed light on the present and history of resistance in Palestine while maintaining a strong social media presence. This innovative generation of protest is reflected in Where Do We Go’s clothing, including tatreez and coded embroidery. It is essential to connect traditional and digital forms of activism as tools for resistance rather than comparing and contrasting them. Where Do We Go hopes to raise a collective identity’s voice against silence.