Ali Van | Founding Guide (she/her) a.f.t. since 2013
A mossy clue, of peaceful constellations. Ali is a dictionary in the darkness, offering mature visions on what has come to texture feeling and time. She is first contact to new, necessary, and expansive definitions toward the pursuit of living. Through favourite things and beings of value, Ali is an ally in the act of making yourself heard. Both seed and sense for a.f.t. and its offspring, she is the first bloom but not the only fruit, a presence for breathing transformation.
Between meadows on a Hebridean line Ali finds motility in the fullness of every day. Parceling true with make-believe, she moves with family precedence, cooking to convey all things left behind. To sustain in place a long poem grows, hands mooring heart to temple peat of conference, colour, listening, and design. Along with steering and safeguarding a.f.t., Ali settles into life song with a nest of timely spirits, with AX Archive, UNEMENU, Axiology allies, and a Garden Society advisory, all in host of attunements sharing sprite with soul.
Miranda ZYVB | Spirit Consul (she/her) a.f.t. since 2023
A stone. A weaving antidote. An eternal friend and a wellness to where. Steadfast with spirit, Miranda propels to ground sense, to freeing sensational stars. Balancing layers of light, her voice intends and extends to dance, matter, and memory. Her glow reaches places she has yet to visit and her heart springs forth with action, togetherness, and a love for life.
Miranda is currently making her home on Lenape land, in what is colonially known as Bedstuy, New York City. Along with a.f.t., she sings with Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir, and is studying Chinese Medicine at Pacific College of Health and Science. Miranda is usually to be found at home, gardening, with little brown dog, Mushu, often in tow. At different points, Miranda's homes have been with the communities of Dirt Palace Public Projects, No Más Muertes, the Bread & Puppet Theater, and in Hong Kong Standard Time (GMT+8).
Ambika Miglani | Code Envoy (she/her) a.f.t. since 2024
A ring retreat, with family orientation. Ready to define boundary and beauty, Ambika reveals a gentle majesty. An independent keep of space and distance, she travels with warmth and feistiness, and an honest third eye. Riding the internal and external, she stitches between forest and ether, a clear ground for the stars. With small hands she creates ripples, meandering through the familiar and unknown.
Ambika navigates her world through sound, light, and laughter -- observing, recording, and letting them weave between worlds into her memories. She is informed by forms created by and around nature, and is studying how these structures build lives. Along with a.f.t., holding space for home is currently guiding Ambika's practice, as she delves into whatever medium can bring her closer to it. She is currently cataloguing field recordings of sound in public space, appreciating ambient sounds and even silence as much as she does music.
Shen Xin | Living Strategist (they/them) a.f.t. since 2025
A fierce friend to all species. A streak of afternoon light. Xin breathes with sea wave crash, like opaline spice rapping beneath cool waters. Through sense and lens, they let their feral frame a true belonging. In hardlines to soft radicals, Xin ignites to bring the shared into thistled focus, manifesting resolutely, to upraise our clearest story.
As an artist and filmmaker Xin practices co-creating languages rooted in epistemic relationships manifested from the land. They speak the grammar of sense, volition, technique, and spaciousness through abiding knowing in relations. Along with a.f.t., Xin aligns their being in place with སྲམ་ Dòbhran, An Deò, A Learning Utterance, and AX Archive, through collaborations, writings, community cinema, publishing, and translations. Born in Chengdu, Sichuan, they find home in Isle of Skye and Mni Sota Makoce with their life partner and a.f.t. founder Ali Van.
Vic Xu | Currents Keeper (they/them) a.f.t. since 2025
A dandelion. A boomerang. A coral in wind under the sea. In sunlight slowness, Vic moons to archival waters, carrying fractal forms through language, liquid, and time. Their balance renders sacred and bright for the now and remembered, to distill course with astute vitality. Like a lion/ness at rest, Vic endears new by way of being in touch and on the move.
Drawing from the language of their everyday, Vic’s practice is rooted in photography and craft - work that helps them slow down, hear quiet stories, and remember each whisper. Alongside a.f.t., Vic is currently digitizing their grandpa's photographic archive and learning to see the medicine all around us as an EMT-in-training and baby herbalist. You can often find Vic stopped by the roadside on Narragansett land (colonially known as Providence, RI, USA), pausing to hear the history plants often seen as 'weeds' have to share.