From 4 to 17 May 2026, designer and artistic researcher Guanyan Wu took part in the Accelerator4Crafts Residency Programme at Waag’s TextileLab in the Netherlands.
During the residency, Guanyan continued her research into soy resist dye, a 400-year-old textile technique from Guizhou, China. Her work explored how this traditional craft knowledge can meet contemporary digital tools, opening up new ways to think about materials, technology, and craft today.
A residency for exchange and experimentation
The Accelerator4Crafts Residency Programme is part of the exchange activities of Tracks4Crafts. It brings together online engagement and in-person, peer-learning residencies hosted by pilot organisations across Europe.
Through the programme, craftspeople, artisans, creative entrepreneurs, and researchers have the opportunity to collaborate, experiment, and share knowledge in real-world settings. Each residency creates space for hands-on exploration, dialogue, and connection with local craft communities, supporting the evolution of both traditional and contemporary craft practices.
Working with soy
Guanyan’s practice focuses on soybeans, which she approaches both as a material and as a cultural subject. Today, soy is one of the most industrialised crops in the world, often processed through highly mechanised systems. At the same time, it has a long history connected to food, craft, and cultural traditions, especially in China and across other Asian cultures.
At Waag’s TextileLab, Guanyan looked closely at soy resist dye and how this technique could be explored in a contemporary setting. Her research explores how the knowledge embedded in a traditional material process can be sustained, adapted, and better understood today.
Testing digital printing with soy paste
During the residency, Guanyan experimented with digitally printing soy resist paste using Waag’s hacked Hapticolor printer. Instead of applying the paste through the traditional stencil-based method, she tested how a machine-assisted process could work with the material.
This involved adjusting digital code, modifying the printer setup, designing shapes and patterns in relation to the machine’s movements, and testing different thicknesses of soy paste. Guanyan also worked on developing a custom protocol for depositing the paste onto textile.
The process brought both failures and discoveries. As Guanyan observed, craft techniques often develop over time through trial, coincidence, repetition, and careful refinement. When one part of the process changes, everything else is affected. In this case, introducing a digital printer meant rethinking the paste, its behaviour on textile, and the final dyeing result.
Technology in dialogue with craft
For Guanyan, the residency deepened her ongoing research into soybeans and soy resist dye. It also highlighted the care needed when new technologies enter traditional craft practices.
Rather than seeing technology as something that replaces craft knowledge, her work suggests another approach: one where innovation listens to materials, respects traditional processes, and works in dialogue with craft intelligence.
Guanyan’s residency at Waag’s TextileLab reflects the wider aim of Tracks4Crafts: to support meaningful exchange between craftspeople, materials, technologies, and cultural heritage. Her experiments show how traditional craft knowledge can continue to grow through curiosity, collaboration, and hands-on research.
Credits
Resident: Guanyan Wu
Residency Host: Waag Futurelab / TextileLab, Netherlands
Residency dates: 4–17 May 2026
Website: guanyanwu.com
Images and footage: courtesy of Guanyan Wu