THE GRAND
DOMESTIC REVOLUTION

THE GRAND
DOMESTIC REVOLUTION

USER'S MANUAL

‘The Grand Domestic Revolution—User’s Manual’ (GDR) investigates the domestic space and its (changing) use through a variety of methods and disciplines, traversing the fields of art, design, architecture, urban planning, activism and theory. A number of artists and other practitioners contribute to this endeavour. Residents from 2009-2011 include Sepake Angiama, Paul Elliman, and Doris Denekamp who utilized neighbourhood and online research to create prototypes and interventions around the theme of (Green) Cooperativsm. Wietske Maas and Travis Meinolf experimented with Home Production; while 'interor' infrastuctural interventions for the furniture, library and hallways were created by ifau & Jesko Fezer, Mirjam Thomann and Graziela Kunsch. Current themes and residents from February–October 2011 include Kyohei Sakaguchi and Kateřina Šedá who will each investigate forms of usership in architectures; home and housing rights with Maria Pask and Nazima Kadir; the question of invisible and domestic labour taken up by Werker Magazine; Agency will continue its deliberations on copyright issues of domestic THINGS (gardens and textiles); and keywords in relations to food service work will be workshopped with Xu Tan. Parallel to this, the Read-in activity continues. Initiated by artist Annette Krauss and theatre maker, Read-in is an open reading group inhabiting a different neighbour’s home for every session.

LIBRARY

LIBRARY

The GDR library constitutes the backbone of our ongoing ‘living research’ and thus grows over time. The library offers points of engagement with the project and consists of different research materials such as books, articles, images and DVDs (artist’s video, films) that are available for viewing when visiting the apartment. The first installment was done by the GDR team and was later adapted by Sao Paulo-based artist Graziela Kunsch who suggested that the GDR team create thematic selections.

APARTMENT 18B

APARTMENT 18B

'The Grand Domestic Revolution-User's Manual' is a long-term project developed as Casco’s contribution to 'Utrecht Manifest: Biennial for Social Design'. The project deals with the evolutionary and collaborative process of “living” research in the contemporary domestic and private sphere – particularly in relation to the spatial imagining (or the built environment). It aims at re-articulating while exercising the notions of the social, the public and, eventually, the commons.

TOWN MEETINGS

TOWN MEETINGS

TOWN MEETINGS has its genealogy in past regular GDR events from 2009–2010. These include Home Cinema, where the screening of films that touch upon different aspects of domesticity, neighbourhood organisation, urban planning and alternative politics, take place; Thursday Night Supper, occasions for cooking, eating and discussion with various guests, and the midterm manifestation GDR GOES ON which consisted of a series of events over four days in domestic, private, and public spaces in Utrecht.

IN AFFINITY

IN AFFINITY

Since August 2010, the GDR team have undertaken research in order to connect with the local neighbourhood on questions relating to peoples’ social conditions and material environments. Questionnaires, interviews, and conversations are the methods used to explore the themes and problems addressed in GDR, such as self-organised governance, co-operative living, and spatial organisation in and from the domestic sphere.

SEARCH

WE WERE HERE

Back balcony view sketch, 2010

During his 2010 residency, in conjunction with his Casco exhibition exploring the remaining wildlife of an abandoned Detroit Zoo, Future Park: Teach Me to Disappear, London-based artist and researcher Paul Elliman proposed the design and installation of ‘standard’ public information panels, to map the plant matter seen from the front and balcony views respectively. Collaborating with Utrecht-based artist and botanist Hans van Lunteren, ecologist and gardener Rob van de Steen and Amsterdam-based graphic designer Na Kim, Paul’s gesture activates the proximal environment into the scope of the apartment whilst simultaneously extending the balcony garden into its surrounding communities by means of our cognitive and imaginative faculties. The ‘public’ form of the information panel is also a support structure that enables strangers to more actively occupy and inhabit the apartment, inviting new actors into the local network of knowledge of common visible spaces of plant matter.

The installation of the panels, newly titled, We Were Here, was inaugurated at GDR's 2011 January Town Meeting to coincide with The Expanding Balcony Project: MEAL MACHINE.

Front and back balcony views, 2011

Related:

NOTES

the urban homestead


This book ‘The Urban Homestead, your guide to self-sufficient living in the heart of the city’ by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen is a very use full manual for building on your urban homestead. It gives detailed, practical information on building chicken coops, grey water systems and even urban foraging and making your own cleaning liquids.

It is a very friendly written book which takes our contemporary lack of time into account. Often they propose a method for building one of the systems yourself of recycled materials and, if you have no time but you do have money, an address where you can buy a ready made version.

22 December 2010, 11.03 — posted by Doris


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