The Weaving: EDUC 310 - Imagine A World...

In class Thursday we were given a challenge (a provocation) by our visiting artist, Walter Kitundu, to imagine a world, imagine an artifact or impossible object from that world, then make it from found materials the teacher brought in. Materials were string, yarn, paper, glue, bits of plastics, bottles, and much more.

We were given 45 minutes to work on this, then meet with our small group to share what we made and the world it came from. Students rushed down to the table to grab materials, and I sat back thinking about what I might make. I had a rough idea, but no idea what materials would be left when I got down into the throng to try to pluck what I could.

After about 10 minutes, the crowd died down and I approached the table. I immediately saw some small cups that seems to have been used to hold acrylic paint, so I grabbed two. Then I took 3 feet each of four brightly colored yarns. Finally, I took what looked to be some sort of paper-wrapped cardboard in a 5X6 shape.

I squirreled my materials away and went into the hallway outside the lecture hall. Sitting on the stairs, I started to weave my yarn. First doing a lanyard wrap, but it was taking too long. I switched to a friendship bracelet knotted pattern, my childhood skills returning rapidly. As I wove my little project, I greeted fellow students with smiles as they moved in and out of the room seeking found materials on the campus grounds. As I did, I mused quietly about the world I was envisioning, and this device I was crafting. And this is what I came up with:

This world believes in The Great Strand of Life. The Great Strand is where we all come from, and where we all return, and where all communal and historical knowledge is kept.

Those who have passed on are called The Woven. Their knowledge and consciousness joins in a tapestry of all that has come before.

The Weavers are the elders. They are the ones who hold the knowledge, and help the next generations weave their strands of life into something beautiful and meaningful.

This world has no written language. They use pictograms for some things, but they rely almost entirely on oral traditions being passed down. 

While technologically advanced, the Old Ways are still a vital component of daily life, and woven elements are a part of almost everything of value.

The people of this world have been struggling to effectively and fully communicate their rapidly expanding cultural and technological knowledge to the younger generations. As such, they have developed a process called "Co-Memoration". A device which has two parts, one attaches a Weaver's mind, the other to the mind of an apprentice, so they can pass wisdom and memory from mind to mind directly. Best of all, it bypasses all barriers of language, so people from different regions and linguistic traditions can pass on their knowledge seamlessly.

Between these two devices is a colorful, partially woven strand. One half is woven by the Weaver themselves. The other half is left unwoven, the strands left individual. This connects the two devices, with the woven end going into the giver's device, and the unwoven end the receiver's--a symbolic representation of the mind of the apprentice's life and skills being in process. 

This strand, however, has no practical function. It is entirely ceremonial. When the Weaver passes from this world to The Great Strand, the weaving is bequeathed to a beloved family member or especially treasured acolyte. These are woven into their clothing. Someone with many of these strands is recognized as a particularly trusted and skilled member of society. The more chaotic and colorful your clothing, the more wisdom you are known to possess.

(To see a short story which I prompted ChatGPT to make based on the above prompt, see it here:
https://heyheyshayshay.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-weaving-short-story.html )

This is an image of my classmate's and my work for the afternoon.