House of Fear / Glue Factory Project
The Glue Factory Project is a continuation of the House of Fear art collaboration between SHED Studio and the Museum of Contemporary Phenomena (Mike and Rashmi and Helen Slade) focusing on fear of aging and our design responses. The Glue Factory will manifest as a "Broadside" poster gallery show of varied responses. House of Fear was a public inquiry and communal rumination on the idea of fear, what do we fear, why, what is it about, and what does this tell us. It started as a part of the Ravenswood Art Walk, and became an opportunity for community members and participants to sit in sit in a room which allowed them a moment of contemplative solitude. They were given a questionnaire which asked a single question on its face: “What do you fear?” Their answers to this question were presented as “House of Fear,” a public installation presented just after Halloween 2006. The results were surprising. Of more than eighty respondents, only one feared the nuclear bomb, while several feared spiders. Not one mentioned al Qaeda, but many mentioned snakes. However, the most prominent and compelling fear of all was a fear of growing old: either alone, or without health care, or without money.
Converge Exchange is a 2 day event focusing on activism, design, and community process. Starting on 3/18/09 at the Chicago Architecture Foundation with a lecture by Bryan Bell and others focusing on designers responses to activism, then moving to thursday 3/19/09 for a series of morning panels, mini lunchtime presentations, and afternoon roundtables all at the Egan Center. For mor information please go to http:convergexchange.org
Cabrini Green Legal Aid opened their brand new office space with much fanfare. The space is light, airy, and professional. The staff and lawyers are the best... you should donate... www.cgla.net
SHED has led a number of seminars and presentations, mostly on Green / Sustainability issues for various organizations, including Faith in Place, Corporation for Supportive Housing and Housing Opportunities for Women, and has participated on an AIA panel on the Extreme Green House (Project 412). If you know a group that would like to have us come in and talk to them about Green, let us know.
