{spore market} Kit for local service networks {Utrecht – 2012}

a spore is a reproductive structure that is adapted for dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions’

Sometimes in an explicit way (stores), and some others in a more implicit way (houses), some communities have an organized network of service providers that give them some level of autarchy, being sufficient in many needs among their own inhabitants. But in order to subsist, these networks’ links should be strengthened (not grown), by allowing them to be more explicit about their particular skills, but still in a local scale. Taking inspiration from Colombia, where in exclusively residential areas (as the area around Rotsoord) houses are turned into commercial spaces, a DIY-kit was made, allowing people to build their own signs and donation box, being these two important elements for the local informal transactions.

Further information on this blog.

Featured on OS Blog.

With the fear that people took this as a functional project (and many people not understanding the irony of it all), I decided to test the kit with the community I had contact with (special thanks to Raphaël Klijn). We had a short meeting the 13th of June, where some neighbors united in the community center (Buurthuis) of Hoograven and, after listening some context I gave around the project, where happy to start a conversation around their skills and made some signs to communicate them. Here a video of that night (thanks to the camera-man and advisor, Ben Landau)…

This may not be very fitting on a gallery, museum or exhibition; but there is no bigger reward than getting a good response from a community towards something you did for them. For this, you have to believe in what you do, even when nobody else does, and prove them wrong.