Unhomely

Unhomely is a site specific installation, an expanded cinema of six video channels projected inside Reynold's Cottage, The Rocks in the winter of 2013. Commissioned by the International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA 2013) and supported by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA), Unhomely is a new work in Life After Wartime, a suite of electronic art that poetically engages with Sydney's past mediated through an archive of police scene of crime photographs from 1945-1960. Unhomely aims to effect an uncanny and spooky audience experience, by filling and electrifying - possessing and processing - the cottage with unfolding scenographies created from the archive. In Unhomely the images come from several local and Sydney crimes - from murders to petty theft, assault, abortion and illegal gambling. By reanimating the cottage with archival material, artists Kate Richards, Ross Gibson and Aaron Seymour produced an affective, dark and uncanny public experience. This paper outlines the creative context, mobilizing concepts and design processes for Unhomely.