in progress / Detroit, Michigan and other / TBA
“The House of Commons” is a community and participatory museum-in-progress, based on shared knowledge individuals have inherited or taught themselves to fix, survive or otherwise use and re-use information and materials.
Assisting in evolving a more rich present and future as connected to past, this inter-generational, regenerative and common knowledge will be artistically interpreted for future exhibition.
To be built collaboratively in stages with youth and other interested parties in Detroit, MI., The House of Commons will contain multi-media representations of common daily and exceptional knowledge, which many people overlook as ordinary rather than recognize its uniqueness.
For example, knowledge of what to make or how to survive, fix or appropriate, as learned through one’s personal, inter-generational and/or cultural ingenuity.
We will begin with workshops that call forth and express internal knowledge and skills, with participatory sharing and visualizations via drawing and building. We will then proceed to collect information from local elders and friends. Youth participants will then devise how best to represent and in turn re-generate what they are given.
One’s own common knowledge is often overlooked in lieu of knowing more, learning from “experts,” being a know it all, or a constant Googler! It is important to pay attention to the sustainable or even momentary practices each of us has created, adapted or adopted.
Rather than a constant quest for more, The House of Commons, gives credence to the wealth of knowledge we already have. This may be passed down through generations, from families and caregivers, and applied directly or re-formed afresh to adapt to new situations, economies and geography. However it comes, we are connected; part of a continuance instrumental to our sustainability and quest to find new alternatives in living, linked to a long aggregate past and an interconnected present.
I’m excited to invite collaborations with local talents, teachers, artists and communities and will work toward an integrative and growing museum of these living collections of common knowledge.
I am looking for a master home as well as satellite locations from which to work, communities to collaborate with, and funding possibilities.
Potential outcomes for participants of The House of Commons, include but are not limited to: practices with artistic mediums ranging from drawing, sculpture and performance, to journalistic engagement, storytelling and listening skills, greater cross-cultural understanding, collaborative project building and interpretative strategies.
If you’re interested in participating please be in touch, Carrie (at) dashow (dot) net
Carrie Dashow 