weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 10
reflect on the connection and parallel processes of creation and learning
of weaving and singing in a broad sense, both in improvised manners.
Textile artist, Rosa Smits, titles her chapter Weaving Together to Mend Our
Collective Wellbeing. She introduces some of the basic characteristics of
the craft of weaving, especially through her meeting with the Moroccan
Amazigh community. By reflecting on the Weaving Voices project week
in Leeds, she focuses on the advantages of communal weaving in a
public space as a low-threshold creative activity. More generally, she also
addresses contemporary issues of craft and design, its ethical questions
and environmental impact. The study by Laurent Stéphan The Educational
Value of Traditional Georgian Songs focuses on the various aspects of the
rich vocal tradition of Georgian culture which accompanied the stages of
the present project. A special connection has been found here between
singing and weaving or craft activity that explores the issue of authenticity
when it comes to the learning and applying these songs interculturally.
Similar questions arose about the relevance of the Scandinavian herding
call, kulning in the pedagogical insight titled Creative Space in a Natural
Setting by Wendela Löfquist. She summarises the experience and
challenges of the project week in Sweden, highlighting the positive
effects of being in close proximity to nature. Nina van Hartskamp, from
the field of mixed media and textile art, reflects on the conditions and
outcomes of community art in her piece Interwoven Stories of Connection:
Methodologies for Weaving a Community with and from Many Voices. She
gives the example of the botanical dyeing and printing sessions that she
led during the project in Komló (Hungary) with the participation of the
inhabitants of the Leo Amici Rehabilitation Institute. She also touches upon
questions regarding the dynamic relationship between structured (e.g. the
loom) and unknown (e.g. improvisatory) spaces when it comes to collective
creation. The writing by Géza Pintér-Németh Threads of Memories, Carpet
of Voices reveals some strategically important and memorable project
activities involving the rural community of Szalatnak (Hungary) in June
2024. The experimental text by Teresa Brayshaw and Hannah Butterfield
Weaving Voices as Threads of Community opens several doors to different
aspects of the project including their own practices in the fields of
Feldenkrais Method (a somatic movement practice) and co-creation arts
facilitation with people seeking sanctuary in the UK. The authors also
reflect on key terms, ideas and questions that have been crucial to the
partnership during this project as well as with an eye to its future.
The current publication is complemented by a digital library, a collection
of sounds, songs, images, and videos which have been an important
part of our project and offer a broader view of our research in practice
alongside the texts. We also invite you on a corporeal journey, to open
a shared virtual space, by guiding you through and offering ideas and
some exercises. Even if some of them might seem rather simple, they
can potentially transform your actual bodily and mental state, the way of
perceiving your environment and yourself. In this way they may affect how
you connect to the human and non-human beings around you.
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For short biographies of the authors, as well as more information about
the partner organisations of Weaving Voices, please have a look at the
end of this book. If you would like to share your thoughts or questions
with our team, we encourage you to get in touch with us to open further
dialogues. You can contact the project team via the coordinator’s email:
sinumszinhaz@gmail.com.
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