By: Ashima Shukla, Staff Writer
In the age of instant everything, what if creativity could slow the world down? This is the ethos behind the Luddite Land Assembly, taking place from November 8 to 9 at The Roundhouse. This multidisciplinary slow art and music experience is part of the internationally celebrated 2025 Modulus Festival, inviting participants to connect deeply with land, culture, and creativity by partaking in two days of social gatherings and performances. Curated by Barbara Adler, an interdisciplinary artist, SFU alum, and artistic director of The Only Animal. The Only Animal is an interdisciplinary arts company that places artists at the centre of the ongoing climate crisis. Adler’s curation draws inspiration from the “Luddites,” textile workers who resisted the automation of their craft during the Industrial Revolution.
Keeping this spirit of resistance alive through craft, visitors can join several hands-on sessions exploring natural dyeing techniques on November 8. These sessions allow participants to come together and slow down in transforming fabrics using plant-based materials as they listen to live personal stories of artists and recorded sound. The goal?
Over the two days, participants will learn how to co-create a large plant-dyed textile while learning to dye, eco-print, and embroider.
The natural dyeing process reveals hidden prints by artist Keely O’Brien, while the facilitators share stories of land, memory, and care. In the first session, Daphne Woo, once part of the fast-fashion world as a garment developer for 20 years, reflects on her transition to a mindful relationship with natural materials. Through logwood, she explores the legacy of her family as a second-generation Chinese settler. Session 2 is led by Rita Point Kompst, a xʷmәθkʷәy̓әm Elder and artist, teaching audiences to use mushrooms for natural dyeing while she narrates her experiences of healing through weaving with cedar and wool. Bernarda, founder of The Batik Library, leads the next session using marigolds, sharing stories to raise awareness of Indonesian culture and traditional Batik making techniques. Finally, Valérie d. Walker, a “Indigo Griot,” concludes the day with stories from her “decades-long collaborations with bio-fermented indigo vats,” teaching simple shibori techniques.
On Sunday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m., the event culminates in the Luddite Land Assembly Concert, presented by Music on Main, programmers of classical and contemporary music who aim to reshape the concert experience by connecting musicians and audiences in a more intimate way. As you listen to Tsimka and Michael Red, whose collaborations merge the Tla-o-qui-aht ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ language with field recordings from Tsimka’s home, you are invited to stitch together the various dyed textiles into one. Joining them is Caley Watts, a Cree singer-songwriter whose folk and roots music traces the movements of rivers and the cadence of mountains. Her songs draw from the rhythms of the forest, bringing the weekend’s theme full circle: art, like nature, thrives with attention and reciprocity.
Together, these sessions and performances invite the audience to slow down and create with intention. Tickets are from $10 for the dyeing sessions, and $25 for the concert. Come dye, stitch, listen, and co-create. This is a public sphere that comes alive with care.
