I am Alexandra, but most people call me Lex. I'm a 24 year old photography student living in Breda. I have a four year old cat, and a boyfriend whom I like to compare to a gnome (kabouter).
These angry looking people are my boyfriend, Bart, and best friend, Ted, at my favorite festival which will probably be canceled :( due to the corona pandemic.
Ted is a tattoo artist, check her out on Instagram @tedpokes !
I just spend the last few weeks moving into a new studio/room, I live here with two friends, Kim and Manon, which is awesome.
Here we're sitting on the pallet lounge set we built, since we had extra time on our hands at the start of the quarantine.
Invisible Homeless
This life size glass sleeping figure was made as part of an Arts Council funded residency at the Glass Hub in UK. The artwork was made to highlight the growing number of hidden and invisible homeless people there now are. Shrouded in a blanket made of glass, the ghost-like figure, which has no gender, is a vulnerable and fragile form.
This is Sebas my sweet cat. He is a bit dog like, he always comes running to greet me when I get home and really likes to "talk", follow me around and cuddle a lot.
My friends and I started playing Animal Crossing during the "stay in your home" may break. It's fun, and keeps us social.
Day 3:
It's safe to say this game is addictive. We haven't not played in days...
I try to call my grandma every week. Especially with the COVID19 lockdown. She told me she is only allowed to see my aunt right now.
She doesn't really understand why and what's happening...
They did a Corona test on her because she had this cough and she was a bit scared after that, not really knowing what it was for and why it is so important.
It would be nice if they would find a way that we could "meet" through a window or something, because my grandma is really lonely right now, she is very much a people person.
OUR CAT JUST MET HIS NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR AND IT WENT GOOD!
Sebas met Puck, our neighbors Jelle & Cady's little cat.
We're very happy they didn't start to pound down on each other. Sebas was very curious of Puck but she was still a bit scared of him. So he kept his distance, Sebas is a gentleman.
We found it extremely funny they were sitting on both sides of the beer crate.
Where are people spending there time right now? What is there favorite place to haul up in while they can't go outside as much?
Smila and I found ourselves contemplating these things. We wanted to know the answer and came up with an idea that would give us a look into peoples homes, their refuge for these times. We're building a flat on instagram. Everyone can participate.
We want to stimulate people chatting with their "neighbors". In this way we are still all together, meeting people.
*it has officially been cancelled :'(
We still have to paint them, but we don't know what colors...
I don't like pictures being taken of me, so I pull faces a lot.
He likes to wake me up, with his teeth if he finds I sleep to long.
It's playful and not painful tho.
4.2
I found these girls who collabed on recording a song together. I liked this because they can still do what they enjoy, they show that not being able to get together doesn't make this kind of thing impossible.
Maybe even more fun to try out new ways of working together.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_-Y1pIhlCp/
Wanna join? Check our insta: @insta_flat_
4.3
It would be cool if we could canister very specific smells that could indicate certain answers; for example peanut butter smell for "yes" and union for "no".
Then we spray that through a tube through the window and we could communicate like that.
5.1
5.2
I like to use social media to still communicate with others. I think the project Smila & I are working on (InstaFlat) is a good example. It creates a living room like space. Where people can interact with others and meet new people, even though we can't go to too many places right now.
So I think working in a public way will give us a more wide spread reach and gain us more contributions, since one of our goals is to make the "flat" grow.
they're getting to be closer friends
they're visiting each other daily
maaaaybe a bit too close... going to the toilet together...
She has been tested twice now, because she's still coughing. Still negative results!
It's getting a bit weird.
Still a lot of fun together
5.4
At this time we both made our own physical posters inspired by the InstaFlat page. Smila is one based on her apartment building and mine on my street.
I will hang this on the outside of my window and people who pass by can draw something, put a picture up or even doodle, write or leave stickers. I hope a few neighbors might reply, because that would be the most fun to me.
So at this point it's a mixed online and offline project
5.5
We are working quite publicly. Trying to gain more followers and participants for out Instagram page. We like to keep the flat growing.
The physical projects are also public, but not as wide reaching as the Instagram; it's more meant for local interaction.
The Cat Adventures
Tuning In
Who am I?
The may break
InstaFlat
Bridging the distance
Public or Underground?
Hanging the poster outside
Acces moment one
In the end
Someone stole my black marker so I only hung the poster while at home so I could see what happened
It's not as much as I would've hoped, but I like that some people filled it in a bit!
The art of reading
A Critical Pedagogy of Place
“For every person you see sleeping on the streets, there are many others sleeping in hostels, squats and other forms of unsatisfactory and insecure accommodation,"
"I was interested to see whether the sculpture would be ignored and treated like street furniture as homeless people often are in a city."
"I hope the artwork will raise awareness of the problem and that the public will feel moved to support the charity, to make a difference.”
- Luke Jerram (artist)
Invisible Homeless (2015)
https://www.lukejerram.com/invisible-homeless/
What would be the best way to provide a design which provokes and resonates with people at the same time?
2.3
Question
I choose to read City of Pain by Teju Cole. The traveler arrives seeing another city similar to all the other cities from above, but goes looking for the differences on the ground. The society in the city is described to have been made up out of so many cultures (and classes of people) that getting acquainted with them all is in fact a core part of the culture of Reggiani itself. In the text that Reggiani is stated to be the world. I think Reggiani is a good metaphor for the world; it’s a great mixing bowl with a lot of somethings and everywhere’s and what is the world but a big mixing bowl?
The people of the city are tight knitted even though they often stayed in their own homes. People almost only ever come out for work that requires it. Even though people don’t come out they still can hear each other and still reach for their homes.
What I found most interesting about this article is that Reggiani is sketched as a city that is different from other cities because the inhabitants are all equal in a way, they all have one thing in common: the Visitation. It doesn’t matter if you are poor, rich, lowborn or high-standing. They all live in similar ways in this city, not going outside and relying on communication from within their homes and listening in to the sounds of others. Having conversations through windows, not truly being face to face to someone contributes in my opinion to the equality of the people in the story; there is a lot less to judge, and with little physical, bodily contact you depend more on your close neighbors.
This text teaches me that design is more than just how something is going to look in size and form; it can also be use to communicate an underlying message.
"Design for social innovation decidedly locates place making and the re/creation of communities at the heart of the design mission.
City of Pain
Location of the poster; on the outside of my window in the city centre.
"They knew that
what was
invisible was
not thereby
imaginary."