Open house: interaction as critical reflection

Abstract

This paper describes Open House, a networked art installation by Jack Stenner and Patrick LeMieux that allows visitors to telematically squat in a Florida home undergoing foreclosure after the U.S. housing collapse. Virtual markets transformed this otherwise livable property into a ghost house. Prior to the collapse, the movements of global capital seemed like a distant reality to most homeowners, but in the end it was imaginary systems of value, not bricks and mortar, that fell apart. Through computer interaction that integrates computational processes, mechanical relays, and human interactions, Open House implicates the tendency to separate virtual and physical activity, an enabling mechanism and proximate cause for the current U.S. economic crisis.