{Welcome to the sharehouseproject}
Greetings and welcome to the sharehouseproject, a community arts project aiming to capture in all its vibrant diversity the life and culture of sharehouse living in Melbourne.
You and your share house are invited to get involved and active, using a variety of art materials to explore your experiences and capture the essence of livin’ it up in Melbourne sharehousing.
If you feel you have something to say about sharehousing, if you want to join with others in celebrating and reflecting on good and bad experiences, share how your house actually works (or doesnt!) or document the bizarre day-to-day happenings in your home- then this is a forum.
{How to get involved}
The sharehouseproject has a range of options for participation (see below) that vary in time commitment, purpose andart-making techniques. You and your sharehouse are welcome to choose a single option that suits you, and/or to participate in a number of options if you wish.
The final outcome will be a public exhibition in selected Melbourne sharehouses in March 2010, of artwork created through the project. Have a yarn together perhaps your sharehouse may be interested in being an exhibition space for the project...
{The purpose of the sharehouseproject}.
The sharehouseproject aims to document and celebrate share house living in Melbourne, with particular focus in exploring communal share housing, the personal experiences of residents, the relationships and meaning of sharehousing, the use of physical or psychological space within the house, dis/organisational systems (shared cooking, chore rosters, kitty jars, little notes etc) and significant personal &/or household objects.
Creative mediums such as photography, sound installation, sculpture (among others) will be used to explore and document these areas.
Aside from showing the four options above specific to each houses, a giant evolving community map will connect the houses together. This is a giant map of Brunswick and Coburg showing the locations of all the featured sharehouses, together with self-made annotations for spaces and places around the ‘hood that are of interest to them. Social, sexual and syncronistic connections between the houses will be shown with various types of string, and any other place-based comments are welcomed and appended to the map. Please note - the project is starting off focusing on the Brunswick/Coburg area, but we welcome interest from other areas as well.
{Biography- Louise Osland}
Louise Osland is a social worker working with youth in refuges in Melbourne’s Northern suburbs. Louise became interested in documenting Melbourne share houses when she noticed that more and more of her peers were beginning to live in other housing arrangements, and that the housing ’crisis’ was leading to the selling and dismantling of her own and other share houses in the suburb of Brunswick.
{Biography- Michael}
Michael Chew is a environmental change agent, community artist and photographer who gets a kick out of dreaming up new projects to make the world a better place. Holding degrees in Fine Art, Physics, and Humanities, he brings widely ranging thought to art and community projects. A favourite interest of his is participatory art projects exploring people’s relationships to space and place. Michael has sharehoused for 10 years and is still vouches for the experience.
{Contacts}
For your sharehouse to become involved in the project, please contact:
Louise Osland: 0432 270 429,
Michael 0432 025 911: Ph
Or email sharehouse_stories_project@hotmail.com
{Options for Involvement}
Option 1: Enter my shrine and pay “respect”
Do you want to bow down and “om” to your sharehouse? Ever thought of making a shrine to pay homage to the way you live and pay respect to what share housing means to you?
Together as a share house, you can create a “shrine” for displaying “sacred objects”, (i.e. personal and household items of significance to shared living such as photographs, significant everyday objects such as a tea pot/chore wheel/telephone message book, etc). Go wild, decorating and adorning your shrine using recycled/art materials and your selected “sacred objects” and “word up” to shared housing.
Your shrine will act as a sculptural installation in the final exhibition, where people will be invited to enter your shrine (a foldable tent) and interact with the physical space and “sacred objects”. Recordings of you and your housemates stories of shared housing will be played on audio equipment inside the shrine.
{Timeframe: 1 hour shrine making workshop plus recording housemates memories/experiences of share houses (approx. 30 minutes per house mate)= 1.5 hours per person. Preparation: Housemates to gather “sacred objects” of personal and/or household significance before the shrine workshop.}
Option 2: A day in the life/Experience Stations
“Experience stations” will be set up in communal areas of your share house (e.g. by the kettle, on the living room couch). Each “experience station” will have a recording device (e.g. pen and paper, typewriter, mobile phone camera, dictaphone) to capture your day-to-day thoughts and the happening of your share house. Think ‘Big Brother’ reality tv but in your own hands!. The recordings gathered will be displayed in the final exhibition.
{Timeframe: Experience stations are designed for use for lengths of time at the discretion of the passerby and will remain at the share house for an agreed timeframe (e.g approximately 1 month). Preparation: Housemates to consider 4 key communal areas of the house for placement of the “Experience stations”.}
Option 3: HouseMaps
Ever wanted to see just what your housemate really thought of you, the kitchen, or that party? The HouseMap gathers this and more juicy tales in a simple format - each person separately sketches out their own ‘map’ of the house - its rooms and significant places - and annotates it with whatever stories, info, and opinions that most accurately capture the house to them. The resulting drawings each show a unique perspective on the house - as candidly or as coyely as you like. The sketches will be done on trace paper which will be then layered on top each other when presented.
{Timeframe: Map-making workshops run for approximately 30-45mins, with the individual maps are collected at the end. Preparation: People to have a think about all the things they’d like to show on their maps - the more the merrier!}
Option 4: Photoshoot
These series of photos are aimed at capturing the spirit/vibe/ambiance of the house. There are three standard shots:
1) The whole crew standing outside the front of the house, school photo style
2) The whole crew hanging out in the kitchen, however you do it best
3) A portrait of each housemate in their room, together with their reverered things/ideas/music/books etc
{Timeframe: Pretty quick - around 5min per shot. Preparation: The shots should really capture the ‘essence’ of the house - whatever that may be. So you may want to gather or identify meaningful items beforehand to be included.}
