Open House

When the US housing market collapsed in 2008, so did the dreams of many middle- and lower-class Americans. Florida, California, Nevada, and Arizona were hit particularly hard, and not by a force of nature, but by the abstract and invisible hand of the market. Prior to the collapse, the movement of global capital seemed like a distant reality to most homeowners, but in the end it was the imaginary systems of value, and not bricks and mortar, that asserted the ultimate authority over our homes. Open House is an installation by Jack Stenner and Patrick LeMieux that allows visitors to telematically inhabit a "distressed" home in Gainesville, Florida. The house at 1617 NW 12th Road is currently in financial limbo, while undergoing the process of foreclosure due to the housing collapse. Virtual markets have transformed this otherwise livable property into a ghost house. Open House allows individuals to repopulate this disenfranchised space and assume the role of virtual squatters -- opening the door, flicking the lights, rattling the shutters, and remotely occupying the abandoned property. Live video feedback integrates real-time physical effects with one's virtual actions. Through Open House, virtual squatters can temporarily resist eviction by mirroring the market and becoming hybrid subjects occupying both virtual and physical space. Like the foolish man who builds his house on sand, we watch the architecture crumble around us. Download Open House at www.no-place.org/open_house.