What is the nature of attention experienced through craft? This course takes as its starting thread the practice of textile creation. These practices are often associated with the creation of utilitarian objects, but in this course, we will explore an alternative utility for craft: its potential as a sanctuary for attention. We will discover how the "patchworked” attention of textile craft can be capaciously attuned to the varying rhythms of our social fabric and consider how to (literally) mend the fracturing of attention.

We will build a collective definition of craft epistemology as we learn (or continue to practice) stitching and weaving skills. We will develop textile techniques in a way that emphasizes the vitality of process over a finished product, consider the labor hidden within the objects around us, and cultivate a flexible form of attention to occupy the lulls where it is most vulnerable to exploitation. By inhabiting the attentional sanctuary that is the stitching circle (in which we will hold a seminar conversation as we work) we will practice an attention that can stretch, knot, fray, and reweave itself—together—without being torn away.

Led by Kathleen Quaintance, textile teacher and PhD candidate in history of art at Yale University.