TEXERE is an art-based mental health app that weaves digital memorial tapestries from words, images, and soundbites about people’s losses. “Texere” is a Latin verb that means “to weave”, and is where the words “text” and “textile” originate from. In fact, the use of weaving to record human stories is 30,000 years old. When you visit TEXERE, you are invited to choose from a menu of losses that relate to your own story. You might choose the loss of sleep, the loss of respect for someone who once helped you, or the loss of one’s indigenous language. Once you select a focus, you make an anonymous entry about how that loss makes you feel. TEXERE then transforms that entry into a digital thread that is woven into a larger digital tapestry of entries from people all over the world who are grieving that same loss. Each time anyone engages in the simple ritual of making a new entry, the composition of the tapestry changes. The tapestry can be changed an infinite number of times. Through woven patterns, TEXERE is a new kind of memorial experience that provides a visual archive of how we collectively change and grow in relationship to our experiences of loss. Images of the memorial tapestries can be viewed as reminders that we are not alone in our grief processes —all from the comfort of a phone or computer.

Created in collaboration with Sassafras Tech Collective with financial support from Ford Foundation Gallery, Creative Capital and California Black Voices Project. The public installation at YBCA was supported by Office of Mayor London N. Breed and the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development.