Flying Fingers: A Workshop and Exhibition inspired by the Ancient Craft of Jamdani Weaving

12:15pm and 1:30pm

This spring, in collaboration with the Center for Art, Science and Technology (CAST), we bring ACT’s Future Heritage Workshop (4.378U/4.379G) into public view. Over the course of fall 2025, Professor Azra Akšamija hosted Nobel laureate Professor Abhijit Banerjee alongside CAST visiting artists, illustrator Cheyenne Olivier and Woolmark Prize-winning designer Suket Dhir, as collaborators in her course, bringing students into direct dialogue with an active, research-driven design practice. Working from Bengali jamdani traditions and Banerjee’s economic research on craft sustainability, students developed original motif designs through hand drawing, pattern exploration, and iterative prototyping. Those designs traveled: selected works were woven by master weavers Habibul Mallick and Selina Mallick in West Bengal, India, completing a circuit between the MIT studio and a living craft community.

Flying Fingers presents the results of this collaboration alongside new garments by Suket Dhir and original illustrations by Cheyenne Olivier. The exhibition is one of the outcomes of the MITHIC-funded project “Performative Preservations and the Economics of Cool,” an interdisciplinary collaboration between Akšamija and Banerjee tat the intersection of art, design, and economic research exploring how traditional crafts can generate new cultural and economic value.

The show traces the full arc from sketchbook to loom to finished textile, and is open to the public at two tour times, hosted by Professor Banerjee.