A hybrid digital/performance project exploring the cultural and geographical pathways of musical knowledge. Beginning with the American banjo family, and the oldest existing banjo of the Americas, the Surinamese “creole bania.” This becomes a starting point for seeking out a living network of musicians, instrument-makers, and tradition-bearers.

The project has two parts, 1) live performance collaborations on-site, and 2) an interactive software experience, gathering traces of these exchanges as music, text, and objects in the physical world digitized remotely. The experience will express a layered and flexible concept of heritage that validates the role of online encounters, while also recognizing their fragmentation and acknowledging the need for interpersonal exchange in building respect for the cultural histories we are entangled in, both by circumstance and by choice.

A Project by Jonathan Reus