2010 – 2011
The Welcome to My Place collective video resource is where people film and share the places that matter to them – where everyone can explore what places mean today.
Participants are invited to make videos in which they welcome the viewers to the places that matter to them. The videos should be less than one minute long. Places of all kinds can be chosen by participants, as long as they are personal enough to be ‘their’ place. They are presented using the familiar pattern of the welcoming, a social practice that provides additional depth to the video collection.
The collective video resource is the opportunity to question the concept of place without preconceived answers. How do we understand and represent to ourselves the places to which we are connected? How does it differ from culture to culture? How do we apprehend the constant movement of urban landscapes? The “Welcome to My Place” video resource is a platform for cultural dialogue, not simply a juxtaposition of places but an exchange of meaning made possible by the human act of welcoming. It is the occasion for artists, architects, urbanists, cartographers, volunteers, and inhabitants to share their views and experiences.
Video contributions are encouraged by the organisation of workshops, talks and exhibitions. The Welcome to My Place concept is the result of brainstorms and test videos made in collaboration between Nathan Johnston (the small world project) and I.
The project was launched in January 2010 and everyone is welcome to participate.
Welcome to My Place: Workshop Manuals
Credentials
June 2013, screening of the Welcome to Hong Kong videos at the 3rd edition of Under the Subway Videoart Night (New York, USA).
June 2011, screening of the “Welcome to Hong Kong – Elevation” video at the 11th edition of the Images Contre Nature festival (Marseilles, France).
June 2011, talk about the appropriation of space given at the IXth IIAA conference on Environmental Aesthetics, University of Helsinki (Lahti, Finland).
January 2011, conversation with Kati Blom on the appropriation of space, from the International Society for the Philosophy of Architecture.
September 2010, screening and presentation of the Welcome to Hong Kong project at the European Conference on Complex Systems (Lisbon, Portugal).
September 2010, two videos made for the occasion of the Study on Verticality project were screened one day each on the subway station screens of Toronto (1.3 million daily commuters), as part of ‘The medium is the Message’ and the ‘Urban Ideas and Politics’ sections of the Toronto Urban Film Festival.
July 2010, letter on the philosophical concept of mobile capital published in the issue 232 of the “Design, Architecture, Ideas” Ottagono magazine (Italy).
March 2010, conclusion of the Welcome to Finsbury Park project made in collaboration with the Transition Towns Network. The initiative was supported by the Finsbury Park Homeless Families organization, the Green Lens Studios, and the Faith, Football and Falafel project.