[in progress]

(n.) A collectively made structure depicting the White House fabricated from used bed sheets donated from local hotels. Bed sheets represent the transitory, highly mobile nature of modern life and contain traces of human existence, as did the Shroud of Turin.

Throughout the world, the White House is an icon of United States power and the aspirations of human progress. It is a primary media image symbolizing decisions made in Washington that have a profound impact on people all over the planet but who play little or no role in the decision-making process.

To address this exclusion, Collective White House is an arts and social change project through which people can re-imagine their relationship to the power represented by the White House. By turning an historic symbol of institutional authority into a collective social space that encourages cultural and politi-cal dialogue, participation, empowerment and reciprocity.

Collective White House is installed in public space to function as a peoples’ embassy-- a collective platform and gathering place for discussion and participation on the role and influence of US politics.

Collective White House is an open source institution that re-imagines the balance of power, recon-structing a transnational symbol of dominance through active community imagination and participation. It gives power to people to redefine the role of the United States in their daily existence. These acts of social balance transform “Terminos de intercambio”, terms of exchange into manifestations of social equality. The project will create networks in communities that contribute to a generative dialogue. Be-cause the nature of dialogue is exploratory, its meaning and methods continuously unfold. Generative Dialogue attempts to transform the current system of one center and many peripheries into a system of several centers and no periphery. Collective thought becomes a process of identifying crisis and en-gages in a process of developing solutions. This process is adopted from David Bohm’s On Dialogue.

Construction
The Collective White House nº1 is to be constructed from the used bedsheets of an inexpensive motel. Donation of the bedsheets is an important element of the project. The bedsheets are a perfect metaphor for the transient condition of individuals, addressing issues of identity and immigration in the context of an economic system of exchange and labor. The project calls on the participation of the local populace and craft-makers, so the whole of the community reflects on the construction process and ultimately the final structure. This process opens the possibility for abundant nuances and personal expression in the building of the structure. The building is also a commentary on the homogenizing effect of modern labor practices and the ability for communities to generate value locally.

Human Agencies

Utilizing the nomenclature of the institutional process, a series of departments or ministries are housed inside the Collective White House. These departments use our understanding of the bureaucratic process to initiate a dialogue between the people and the institution, such as:

H/agency of Complaints: a secretary typing letters to the US President
H/agency of Future Readings: psychic reading
H/agency of Information: community news gathering
H/agency for Cultural Awareness: Creating cultural icons
H/agency for Nation Building: Creating New Flags

Museum of the Ordinary

This action encourages members of the local community to add objects of their -choosing into the col lection of The Museum of the Ordinary, housed within the Collective White House. Collective White House will accept objects from anyone in the local area as an object of art or representation of personal identity and national history. This action critiques the process of the institutional archiving and arbitrary value system.

Performances of the Ordinary

This action invites street musicians and musical craftsmen to fabricate their own instruments and/or perform within the Collective White House in a way that place cultural expression at the center of social debate. The project calls on those offering cultural value in the informal context of the street, house or using musical practices passed down orally.

Collective Dinners

This action invites members of the community into the Collective White House for a collective dinner. This action subverts the otherness and hegemony created by the corporate food process. Collective Dinners are an informal context for addressing and revealing local issues. This action establishes exchange, collaboration and dialogue, by equalizing the other and inviting a practice that encourages dialogue, sharing and acceptance.

Commissioning New Cultural Products for Community Understanding

This action is part of an ongoing project that attempts to disrupt the accepted notions of individualism presented by corporate system. The project seeks new prototypes and designs - that embrace commu nity and sustainability and subvert the sanctity of individualism and consumerism. This project engages the corporation and the consumer in a discourse, critiquing their relationship and the fracturing effects of consumer capitalism. The result will be encouragement of products responding to local issues.

Mobilization

The exact details of the project will need to be determined in collaboration -with our partners in Medel lin. The basic concept involves securing participation of formal and informal social groups interested in making a public contribution to the project, whether physically, conceptually or for some part of the overall process.

CRANE: A crane is the support mechanism for the structure, suspending the object from above. The sheets should reach to the ground, though.

Fabricated Structure: PVC, Wood, Found Materials. Construct a lightweight but stable frame to which the sheets are attached.


We are currently in the process of planning the Collective White House in Medellin, Colombia. Please visit this website to learn more: http://collectivewhitehouse.org/CollectiveWhiteHouse.org/home.html