At HOME – an invitation
What is Home? When are we at Home? Where is Home?
Why At HOME
collaboration methodology and community choreographer for social change. Anna and Lawrence Halprin, environmental architect, are known as leading social design thinkers across disciplines in design, health, psychology, and systems sciences. Anna had developed her work as part of her recovery from colon cancer. I related to Anna’s path, as my journey with Ulcerative Colitis over fifteen years has focused my work similarly on creating resilient processes of organizing networks in unpredictable environments. In this shared ground of participatory design thinking, Dietmar and I began our life and work together as collaborators. We started up Improvisation Labs, developing transformative learning groups in East Berlin. We led tranformative inquiry labs for change agents and communities. We then founded Dreamfish in 2006.Meanwhile in the background, what has enabled us to take these risks to innovate for a decade was a wonderful physical home in San Francisco. How we have this home is a story unto itself about participatory design thinking…
I had arrived in San Francisco in Fall, 1997. I was in midst of a series of surgeries at Cedar Sinai Hospital to stabilize my health after years of learning to live every moment in the unknown. Now, I wanted to start fresh in San Francisco. I came to San Francisco with little but I knew a few extraordinary people. And, it was the Dot com goldrush days of 80 people standing in line for one vacant apartment. But, finding a home in these conditions felt doable. I had become comfortable working with the ambiguity of the unknown, a positive outcome of uncertain health.
Here was my process for finding a home – in design terms, here is the”Score”…
I didn’t look in the paper for listings (starting with data and information), then fill out an application (more data, information), and end up with a transactional contract (more data). Nor did I “solve a problem” and fix it. Instead, I started with connection. I connected to my own wonderment. I then connected with someone who knows me and whose way of Hominess I appreciated. I asked Doug Paxton. Doug said, “Check out Noe Valley. Its sunny, peaceful, and close to the Castro. My intuition is that you will like it.” I listened and paid attention. Then, I connected with 
the place, walking the neighborhood. Increasing the participatory pattern, I then connected with more people and had more conversations.
I talked with elderly people, because they were the most connected. They knew the place and people (They had relational knowledge). Within a few hours, I had a new friend, Angie, who then introduced me to Mel, her neighbor. Mel was in his 80′s and hadn’t rented his second story of his building for years. We became friends. I renovated the flat. Mel rented the flat to me for a very low rate. My friend, Urusa Fahim, joined me and the home enabled us to focus on our doctoral studies. Then, Dietmar and I met, and we all became family to each other.
For 12 years, Mel, Dietmar and I have shared household resources, shopped for groceries, gone out to dinner and to the doctor’s office. We have cared for each other as human beings. In the process, we have together reduced our environmental footprints and our costs. We have learned together. With his Depression era frugality, Mel helped us become more resource-conscious, inspiring our Clothesline Laundry behaviors. Mel now uses a cordless phone. This “landlord-tenant” interaction has been a practice of Home (practical knowledge). It is also an example of how the property rental business can be Human Work. We traveled, lived sometimes in Berlin, but always came home to Mel.
This every day know-how of Home has nurtured greater capacity from which we do our work to enable social impact (ie. Responsive knowledge). We owe much gratitude to our Home.
Now, Mel has moved to a nursing home in Washington, and the family is selling our house. We are sad about parting from Mel and our home. But, rather than seeing this transition as a problem to solve, we’re looking at this as an opportunity to connect with what matters and start a new life.
Oy! Where will we live? you might ask. We’re not there yet. We’ll start with connection. We’ll start with gratitude and honoring of Home. We’ll reach out to connect with you. This practice of increasing participation will gives rise to knowing what our new home will be. How? Here is our Score for we will emerge in a new home (Axiom: Improvisation requires Agile planning.) …
How At HOME: the Score 
1. Honor Home – Appreciate our experience of home. Invite participation in the appreciation
2. Go Home! – Digitally increase participation.
3. Discover Home – Explore new spaces to inhabit and call home.
4. Inhabit Home – We inhabit a new home.
Timeline
Roles/People
- Home Hosts: Tiffany/Dietmar
- Family Room DJ: Dabrink
- Living Room facilitators: Paul Loper and Leonard Perlson
- Tweet at: #AtHome
- Flickr Group: #AtHome
- Home
- TBD!
1. Honor Home
- Hang clothes lines within reach across room
- People pin the paper-cut HOME icons to the lines with clothes pins
- People create paper-cut home icons with visual art materials.
- People enter space to unfold an inquiry into HOME
Want to get involved?
- Tweet about what is HOME at: #AtHome
- Share photos of HOME at Flickr Group: #AtHome
Nnenna, 
Paul and 2 others are discussing. 
Lisa 1:52 pm on August 19, 2010 Permalink |
I am a home body, no question about it. Home is definitely my physical house in Oakland. Being a practitioner of yoga, I sometimes worry about my attachment to the stability and safety it provides — our home is blocks from the Hayward fault. But mostly I am just grateful for the pleasures of cooking in my kitchen, puttering in my vegetable garden, hanging the wash on my clothesline, chatting with neighbors, and settling in on the couch for a movie night with my husband and dog. To me, home means simple pleasures.
Jill 9:29 am on August 20, 2010 Permalink |
Home is where I am. Home is inhabiting reality and the present moment completely. Home is embodying self and having space to connect, create, + contemplate.
Paul 10:15 am on August 26, 2010 Permalink |
safety, ease, dropping of “public personae,” intimacy, eros, foolishness, awkwardness, deep recuperation, trust, familiarity, reliability, creative opportunity, productivity, reflection, expression, hosting, cleaning, organizing, decorating, maintaining, …..
Larry 4:26 pm on August 28, 2010 Permalink |
too many rules…
Nnenna 3:30 pm on August 31, 2010 Permalink |
I have five homes and building one right now.
I come from a quaint little village in the eastern part of Nigeria in West Africa. We had a family tragedy when my father was assassinated at ‘home’ . This triggered a wave of traumatic reactions in the family. So we packed my mom and siblings and just left home. So all three houses are empty.
We rented a small place in the nearest town. We did not want my mother to lose the attachment but we needed everyone safe. The new place is smaller and space is not really there. But it is home. Because that is where the family members feel safe.
My partner and I have a place in Accra, Ghana. Nice neighborhood in the chic part of town. There is a huge mango tree there and whenever it fruits, the whole neighbors get a real feast! The house has got a large sitting court and we have enjoyed gallons freshly-made fruit juice there. This place represents calm and quietness for us
My partner also has another house in the western part of Ghana – Takoradi, actually it is called Esipong hill. The house is behind a stadium and overlooks the Atlantic ocean! Beautiful place. We are gently moving from Accra to Esipong now. Lots of fixing to do. Lots of future plans too.
I am doing this reply from Abidjan in another apartment. It is pure white – pillars, rooms, floor, walls everything. A friend of mine had the place but refused to let it go. We both decided to make it a home. A peaceful place. To an extent that has been a success. It has become a kind of refuge to many people. They actually come just to ‘feel’ the peace and ‘be at home’.
A new house is being built now. We call it ‘Lot 17′. It is a different experience. We have been building it from literally ‘ground 0′. The structure is up, the tiles are now being laid. I have a special attachment to Lot 17. Like raising a child! So many heartaches but far more joys!
So here are to all the homes where we have memories, find safety, find calm, dream of the future, seek refuge, and construct our dreams.