We were invited by Shannon Stratton of ThreeWalls to participate in a survival-themed session at Harold Arts, a residency in Chesterhill, Ohio.
http://haroldarts.tumblr.com/survivalsession
After arriving, we spent a few days exploring the site. There is a main house where most residents sleep and gather for meals, a large building that houses the recording studios and a few large open meadows leading to a couple thousand acres of forested land.
We decided to build a single person bunker, based in part on nuclear fallout shelters, World War I era concrete pillboxes and storm shelters. The bunker is dug into the back of a hill that faces the main house. A buried pipe extends from the bunker to the porch of the main house. The pipe carries sound from the porch (via an faux birdhouse), where much of the socializing at Harold occurs, to the bunker. Our intention is for it to function both as an escape from the community and as a meditation on social relationships.
Links:
http://www.shannonstratton.com
http://www.three-walls.org
Process documentation below of our project Retreat.
