DOI: 10.17151/kepes.2025.22.32.5
How to Cite
Cárdenas-Ruiz, A., Valbuena-Buitrago, W. S., & Escandón-Suárez, P. A. (2025). Technologies that connect words: Intercultural dialogues and transmedia co-creation in the cocoa offering of an Iku family. Kepes, 22(32), 133–167. https://doi.org/10.17151/kepes.2025.22.32.5

Authors

Anderson Cárdenas-Ruiz
Universidad Nacional de Colombia 
ancardenasru@unal.edu.co
https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3670-7481
Widman Said Valbuena-Buitrago
Oka Consultores SAS 
okaconsultores@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5048-753X
Perfil Google Scholar
Paula Andrea Escandón-Suárez
Universidad Nacional de Colombia 
paescandon@unal.edu.co
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9867-3905
Perfil Google Scholar

Abstract

This research-creation study explored the co-creation of ancestral and Western knowledge, focusing on the dialogue between the Arhuaco Swaka teaching center, located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and the Despensa de la Sierra store in Bogotá, Colombia. Using a DIY approach to research-creation and participatory methodologies such as participatory design (PD) through playful co-creation, the objective was to promote intercultural communication. This is understood as a collaborative practice between urban and rural communities that promotes techno-communicative sovereignty from the territories. The project
resulted in a transmedia ecosystem that facilitated connection, integrating elements such as packaging design, audiovisual content production, and the use of digital platforms for the exchange of knowledge and practices. The findings indicate that intercultural communication manifests itself as a multimodal and multisensory social mechanism, managed through co-creation. This materializes interculturality in forms of appropriation and hybridization of cultural resources. This approach allowed the communities involved not only to share ideas, but also to co-create technological and communicative solutions that strengthen their autonomy. It is concluded that transmedia co-creation is a tool with the potential to dismantle power asymmetries, promoting more horizontal communication between different cultures.

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