The Quilt Project is a multi-media documentary that examines the complex notions of ‘community’ and how each of us, as individuals, defines this concept. Through international volunteerism, exchanges, and personal one-on-one interviews in disparate communities around the globe, we will be asking the simple question: “what does community mean to you?” The expectation is that the multitude of responses will help illuminate the richness and diversity of how human beings define and form their lives.
Community is something with which we are all familiar. It is a broad term, one we hear all the time, in so many forms – global, economic, financial, religious, agricultural, familial, educational, and so on. It has a breadth of connotations, but we know it well. Community could be our family, our neighborhood, our friends, our work. Community is the group that we, as individuals, either choose to take part in or, at other times, exist in unaware. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we live and evolve in communities every day or our lives. In these groups, we strive for peace, progress, support and livelihood.
Building and structuring these communities is one of humankind’s most profound, innate faculties. It is beautiful and complex. Yet, in the Western world, we often bracket communities into fiscal, economic, or political entities — and this is a limited, ethnocentric viewpoint. When we engage in dialogue about globalization, the terminology turns toward economies, private business, phrases like ‘rising middle class,’ GDP, industrialization and, more and more frequently, war. But perhaps we are forgetting to look at what we, as human beings, need from our communities. Every community is made up of individuals, all with continuously evolving self identities, and in turn, collective identities. What do we value in our communities, and how do we maintain and transform these values to fit into a global context? When speaking about globalization and ‘the world community,’ the talk becomes vague and exclusive, rather than inclusive—homogenized and not diversified. We tend to look at things from the top down. In a world where our circle of dependency is getting wider and wider, and as we indulge in conveniences such as crude oils to run our cars or consuming produce from half-way around the world, perhaps we need to reflect on the things that are most important to us — to look at things from the bottom up, from the individuals who make up this complex and diverse world in which we live.
The Quilt Project aims, through field research, interviews, and the production of an interactive video documentary, to glimpse over the shoulder of this boundaried definition of community, to find out what it really means to each of us, in all of its wondrous forms.
How Will the Project Manifest?
In a virtual, interactive quilt on our website. Over the course of a year, we’ll be traveling to over forty countries around the world – living and volunteering on various organic farm sites. While at each farm, we’ll be asking people a simple question: “What does community mean to you?” We’ll document these stories by video, and they will be posted right here on our blog. Upon completion of the project, people will be able to access, through this web site, an image of the entire quilt. Drag the mouse over a patch, and meet who’s behind it. Click to hear their story, see the person; learn how this individual – from Guatemala, India, Japan – views his/her place in his/her local community, and the world’s community.
Volunteerism and community building. Our route of travel will be connecting the dots of organic farm sites around the world. We will be staying on each farm for approximately 1-2 weeks, volunteering and becoming a part of the community there. The invention and implementation of agriculture allowed early civilizations to settle in one place, have a stable food source, organize governing systems and is arguably a distinct catalyst for the evolution into what we now know as modern societies. Thus, we are using the community of organic agriculture as a sort of microcosm and focus group for our study on community. It is a tangible way for us to give back and volunteer in exchange for filming our piece of art.
