Why does Community Matter? What are We Weaving? A Dialogue between Hui Po Keung and Janis Jefferies
Fig. 1 Workshop view of Hey! Let’s WEAVE! / 2017 Courtesy of Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile
Introduction Why does community matter? What are we weaving? These are important subjects for discussion. The symposium convened by CHAT, “TECHSTYLE Series 2.1: Fabpublic! − Talking about Textile, Community and Public Space” included several presentations from an international gathering of artists, textile makers, curators and museum specialists. The panel discussions that explored different aspects of how technology and craftspersonship could align closely in the process of community formation.
Keung and Janis Jefferies, drawing on Hui’s panel comments and Jefferies’s initial paper prepared for the symposium.
The significant question, however, is why does community matter? This will be addressed in a more detailed way in the dialogue that forms the basis of this essay. In order to answer the question “Why does community matter?” first of all, we have to rethink the question: “What is community?”
Hui: Community can be talked about, perhaps in two different levels or in two different senses. First, it has to do with the defining feature of what could be defined as a community. Community is a connection between people, their relationships, or with a building or environment. But what kind of connection or relationship are we looking for, that could be regarded as a community relation? That perhaps could be talked about a little bit more, later. And for defining features we could also think about it through two different angles. For Iris Marion Young, a critical geographer and feminist, her view of communities is based on her concerns regarding the urban setting. Janis Jefferies has also talked about Richard Sennett’s work, which similarly concerns the city environment.
The dialogue that follows is an adaption of a transcript of an exchange between Hui Po
Jefferies: Young talks about the community of difference, supplementing our conventional 21
CHAT_1015.indd 21
2018/11/28 上午4:23
