The International Fiber Collaborative (IFC) Projects

The International Fiber Collaborative (IFC) Projects

  ​The International Fiber Collaborative (IFC) was founded in 2008 as a 501(c)(3) develops community programs that create collaborative opportunities in art and civic engagement. IFC promotes programs that link learning and creativity in the arts to science, math, engineering, and the humanities. Public programming has been a catalyst for creativity in health care facilities, libraries, schools, museums, national parks and many other sites. During the 2018-2019 school year 9,645 students from 354 schools participated in 20 exhibits at national park sites.

  ​It is a project to create huge works with works made in our own way using materials that we commonly encounter in our daily life, such as paper, pieces of fabric, wool, buttons, and thread. This project creates meaningful shapes such as a big tree, a gas station, and a rocket by connecting small works collected and recruited from children around the world. This is a wonderful piece of work that contains the love and hope of children all over the world.

  ​I was particularly moved by the 2009 tree project. Focusing on invisible energies, I am delighted to see with my own eyes these small hopes come together to create a large visible vision.

  ​2009 Tree Project
Huntsville, Alabama
The Tree Project engaged more than 8,000 students, 62 schools, and quilters from 23 countries and 39 states. Participants submitted over 14,000 handmade leaves for the canopy, mimicking the shape of a live oak. All leaves were photographed and posted online for the public to enjoy. The Tree was eventually installed in its permanent home, the rotunda of the Earlyworks Children’s Museum in Huntsville, Alabama.

  ​The butterfly effect (- 效果, English: butterfly effect) refers to a phenomenon in which minute changes, small differences, and trivial events, such as a small flap of a butterfly's wings, lead to unexpectedly great results or waves later. The first person to use the term "butterfly effect" was mystery writer Ray D. Bradbury in 1952, and he first used the term in his short story about time travel, 《A Sound of Thunder》. American meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz gave a lecture in 1972 at the American Association for the Revival of Science, entitled 'Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Cause a Storm in Texas? Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?)'.

This was demonstrated by a scientist's computer simulation. In 1961, while American meteorologist Edward Lorenz was conducting a weather simulation with a computer, he had to enter the number 0.506127, but he omitted the fourth decimal place and entered only 0.506. However, the subtle differences were amplified enormously, creating completely different results. In this case, it was discovered that a very slight difference in the initial conditions of less than 0.001 can lead to huge changes or results. This means that the flapping of a butterfly's wings can delay or change the path of a tornado. Isn't that amazing? Of course, the wind of a butterfly's wings does not directly affect tornadoes or climate phenomena. There is no power like this at all. However, it can be hypothesized that small, insignificant changes in the early stages, such as flapping of wings, may lead to larger-scale changes by biting tail after tail.

Like this butterfly effect, the little flutters of children all over the world can make a difference in a solid society that never seems to be moved. Just look at this tree. Small hearts that love each other, live together, and strive to live together create a huge tree, under which we can rest. While eating snacks on a picnic blanket.

  Today, I would like to introduce and conclude with a poem called Hope by Carl Sandburg, a poet I came to know through this project.

Carl Sandburg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and biographer, historian, folk singer and social activist, Carl Sandburg. Sandburg wrote millions of words reflecting on the American experience of the 20th century.

A common subject of his poetry was the everyday life of the working class, among whom he saw great hope despite the daily struggles and turmoil everyone experiences. In The People, Yes - Stanza 16 (excerpt), he captures the essence of hope in nature and emotion. 


Hope is a tattered flag and a dream out of time
Hope is a heartspun word, the rainbow, the shadow in white,
The evening star inviolable over the coal mines,
The shimmer of northern lights across a bitter winter night,
The blue hills beyond the smoke of the steel works.
The birds who go on singing to their mates in peace, war, peace.
The ten-cent crocus bulb blooming in a used-car salesroom,
The horseshoe over the door, the luckpiece in the pocket.
The kiss and the comforting laugh and resolve--
Hope is an echo, hope ties itself yonder, yonder
​
by Carl Sandburg