DIY alternative reality Hut is a participatory art-structure for customising post-normal living.
DIY alternative reality Hut is a dispersed participatory event for people living in Covid19 lockdown. it seeks to offer the solace of a voluntary alternative-reality within a distressing externally imposed reality of social distancing, and to provide a forum for reflection on the recently departed ‘old normal’ and speculative imaginings toward a ‘new normal’.
THE PROJECT:
Phase one: Wednesday 22 – Saturday 25 April
Follow on Instagram for step-by-step guidelines on how to customise your lockdown zone into a smaller but more friendly Alternative Reality Hut. Each day will focus on ways in which you might reconfigure the things (objects, materials, furniture and other stuff) with whom you share your covid19 bubble.
Thought experiment #1 Make a mental inventory of the things you could use to construct your hut. Take a moment to reconsider this list rephrased as these things as things who share my home. You could go further and imagined thinking of them as these entities with whom I cohabit. Ask your things if they would like to play. Are they strong enough? Safe enough, light enough? Do they feel playful? Make a full circuit of your home, check in the backs of cupboards and drawers for those who might come out and join you
Phase two: Sunday 26 April
DIY: construction day! time to build your alternative reality hut with the things that you have in your home or you may choose to rephrase that as collaborate with the entities with whom you cohabit to construct an alternative reality hut together.
Alternative Reality Hut is kind and inclusive (Consult and involve all who inhabit the space, animal, vegetable or mineral.)
Alternative Reality Hut is small and intimate. (just big enough to accommodate those who share your bubble sitting close together.)
Together Apart #1 meeting the neighbours: a zoom drop-in session to share your alternative reality hut + Share pics of your alternative reality hut, along with a one-sentence speculation on your hopes for a new normal here in Aotearoa.
Phase 3: Monday 27 April
relax and dwell with the quiet kindness of things
Together Apart #2 alternative reality stories: zoom in from the comfort of your hut and share an alternative reality story. This might be something you have dreamed of in your hut, it might be an alternative reality you would like to see as our new normal. Or you might choose to share the experience dwelling in your alternative reality hut, or to reflect on the quiet kindness of things
JILL SORENSEN 