A Call for "Survey: The use of the house during isolation"

Written by Francesco Felletti, MA Fine Art – Central Saint Martins

During the first lockdown of 2020, we brought many of the things we thought were stable in life into question. The house with its walls, ceilings and floors seemed fluid, every room was challenged. Functions and bonds to the places were changing.

I am an MA Fine Art student at Central Saint Martins, I work mainly with video through a variety of technological devices: from VR and AR to social network platforms. After the pandemic, although I have always been interested in new media, my artistic research has shifted its focus on the relationship between humans and the domestic environment, exploring the new functions of the house and how our daily actions were shaped to new needs during lockdowns and how they can evolve.

In January 2021 I carried out a survey in Italy, which received more than 600 participants. The purpose of this project was to analyze on a large scale, the experience of forced home isolation. By undergoing this survey, I realized that my need to listen and my genuine curiosity was directly proportional to people’s need to share stories related to their individual experience. How had others experienced the lockdown?

From this survey, I created "Survey: The use of the house during isolation": a project for the creation of a scanimation book which explores the relationship between human beings and the home in the pandemic period.

The book selects some of the survey responses to create an archive of the use of space in individual's houses. The book consists of two parts: a survey sheet and a scanimation illustration (an animation effect created by moving a striped transparent overlay across an interlaced image).

The book focuses on one of the survey questions: what have you done at home that is different or unusual compared to what you were used to doing before the isolation? For each answer to this question, I created an illustration which the reader will animate using the striped transparent sheet.

Above video: Survey: The use of the house during isolation

The goal is to give voice to the common experience, to deepen the relationship we have with houses and how we can change it again. I would like to be able to share the experience I lived by reading all the survey responses: I would like the reader to feel part of a larger community, spying on the secret reality of other people's homes.

From the very beginning, the aim of the project has been non-profit because it focuses on the delicate theme of the pandemic and because it also employs the free contribution of the community that has decided to share its story. Therefore I want to return this voluntary sharing in the form of support to the associations that deal with the right of housing for people who do not have it. The project that focuses on the theme of the house would become a means of supporting an Non-Profit organization that operates within the field.

Open Call for Collaborators

The book should have a particular layout and binding, which should reflect its content on an appropriate design for the scanimation technique. I believe it could lend itself to experimental and new interventions. The contents of the book (the animations and the answers to the survey) are ready, but given my low skills in the field of graphic design and publishing, I would like to collaborate with other UAL students to carry out the project. I'm looking for people who can take the project's purpose to heart and make it their own. I think that the work needs a good dose of creativity and study, especially in the general design of the book.

I believe in the realization of this project because it can really be an interesting creative opportunity since it uses an unconventional animation technique and I also believe that the book can represent a starting point for a profound reflection on home and living: topics that still remain hidden and unfamiliar today.

If you are interested in the project and you would like to help me designing and printing the book, you can send me an email to this address: f.felletti0320201@arts.ac.uk

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