Inventory Inventions

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: There is a current trend in architecture to look at the 'everyday' and the 'ordinary'. The work 'Inventory Inventions' consisted of five 4-meter long text and photographic inventories of the contents of five typical Australian homes, to compare and contrast how we live and to what we aspire. The project poses the question of whether we can foreground cultural similarity rather than difference. The 'invention' or reworking of the contents of these homes through five photo montages and an animation explores how design and imagination can make the ordinary, extraordinary, and questions (and demonstrates) how architects can engage others in the design process in a meaningful way. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The project utilises design methods rather that design solutions or outcomes to engage the (Korean) audience in the careful observation of everyday life and demonstrates by example that 'everyone is (or can be) a designer' to misquote the artist Joseph Beuys. Art methods (photography, text, and montage) and the gallery venue are used to make the architectural project and the debate of how and where we live more accessible than conventional architectural representation and discussion and to disseminate the possibilities of design to a broader (and international) audience. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: This project was a commission by curator JooYoung Sohn and project leaders Laurens Tan + BoYoung Jun, for a major Korean museum in its main gallery. (David Hockney was exhibited in the next gallery). Many of the exhibitors in the group show are internationally acclaimed and award-winning artists. Helsel was one of three architects to participate due to her track record in cross-disciplinary practice, and her range of representation techniques. The exhibition received significant grant funding from Department of Forgeign Affairs and Trade (Australia Korea Foundation), Austrade, and the Korean Institute for Design Promotion.