All in Essays

Knowledge Weaving: A global tapestry of human sense-making

Dr. Kevin Murray, co-founder of Knowledge House for Craft, discusses the value of the knowledge weaving process in projects such as Reinventing the Wheel and Value of Craft. The Knowledge House for Craft is an international association of craft thinkers and makers. Its core activity is the production of knowledge that is stored in its online vault. The "knowledge weaving" process draws on textile craft as foundational to how we make sense of the world. As a "house" it shares with tapestry workshops the collaborative nature of production. This raises a question: how far can you take the weaving metaphor for knowledge work?

Writing, Aesthetic Judgment, and the Spectre of ChatGPT

The speed at which ChatGPT has penetrated higher education has been nothing short of astounding. ChatGPT is able to respond to prompts or commands and generate original content: in other words, it can write. For writers and readers ChatGPT may trigger anxieties about the very essence of authorship and originality, which in turn reflect certain deeply held notions of subjectivity. It is hard not to feel unsettled by the current moment. In this essay I reflect on the very practice of writing itself, and the values we ascribe to it, at this very moment at which its upending seems likely.

Artisans by Trade: Working as Weavers and Embroiderers in the Chiapas Highlands

Textile work has traditionally been part of Tsotsil and Tseltal women’s domestic duties in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. However, recent national and foreign interest in artisanal handiwork has led women from the region to start selling their work. In this commercial foray, artisanal work emerges as a trade, one that entails accommodations between women’s economic activities and their home life. While most women carry out their artisanal work at home alongside family members, the way in which they define the nature of their work and its relation to their other domestic activities varies considerably. The following video and text profile three textile artisans from the Highlands region, highlighting the distinct ways in which they organize their work and fit it together with their family life and social relations in their communities.