HOME School

2006

In October 2006, I was invited to participate in the Khoj International Artist Workshop in Calcutta, India. At the project site of Chaudhuribari, I established HOME School – a center for the investigation of home-related phenomenon. The School enlisted the participation of the workshop community - a group of individuals coming from thirteen different countries, representing diverse cultures and backgrounds.

What does home mean to a collection of travelers? How is the concept different from person to person? Are the differences cultural or individual? How do different political climates influence concepts of home and connections to place? How do we carry home with us and project it onto new and unfamiliar spaces? These questions were the springboard for research conducted at HOME School.

Participants were encouraged to engage as both teachers and students. As teachers they were asked to share a skill or an area of knowledge significant to their concept of home. The artists and workshop organizers were also invited to attend as students.

Classes included:
How to cook Beguun Pora
How to speak Pittsburghese
How to clean the floor in an Indian home
Intro to Kashmir: language, geography and poetry
How to fold origami
How to set the table for a formal meal
How to play football
How to build a country house
How to flashdance
How to cut potatoes for different Indian dishes

In between scheduled classes, the School serves as a research laboratory for independent investigation into home-related phenomenon. Activities such as interviews, mapping exercises, drawing assignments and local area excursions stimulated an ongoing conversation about the relationships humans share with the physical and psychological spaces we occupy.