Without knocking the door they came. Ripped rooftop and started to shovel into our house. NOOOO! oh no no no, very scared and didn’t know what was going on but knowing  had to escape from their hand, so went into dark dark spot but much faster and stronger, they were catching my mom and babies and friends… did not have time to say good bye…….then all the sudden, rooftop came back and being quite again… (a red worm from Gloval Village, environmental NGO in Beijing)

Dealing with food waste in city so full of concrete that you cannot rely on natural soil/microorganism to break it down (or a pig to eat them). We are experimenting 4 different compost to make fertilizer and soil. EM compost, cardboard compost and food waste just mixing with soil. Got red worms for worm compost, there are 20 adults and many small bits living there right now. Everyday on the news about Japan, that polluted vegetables and water are found even polluted water running into the ocean. Fukushima prefecture told all the farmer in this area to postpone their seeding process, prefectural assembly investigate for the possibility of soil pollution. All the milk got to discard and domestic animals has to be kept inside. Things are up side down. Many people on the stricken area are lacking for food, Disaster relief network (Donations we collect at the HomeShop, Country Fair go to here) are making 1000 and more food everyday on the spot. When water, soil, air and seeds get contaminated (I guess already has been) what can you do? …..Though, its not all down turn, you can always find a way around and get by, like this and this.

在每一捆冥币完美的，脆新的，多彩的封皮下面隐藏着一些劣质的，粗糙印刷的冥币，这些下面的冥币的纸张也是不同的，由便宜的木浆和再生纸等劣质材料构成。观察这些冥币的背面，我们在混杂的物质间发现冥冥中的声音片断回应了我们。 看看下面的信息：

Under the first perfect, crisp, colorful face-note of every package of hell money hides a less perfect, roughly printed group of bills representing the appearance of that initial simulation. Even the paper of these under-notes is different, composed of the bits of cheap pulp-wood and recycled papers derived from the lowest level of materials. Inspecting the backs of these cheaper bills, we discovered in the mash of substances the fragments of a reincarnated voice communicating back to us.  See the message below…

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一个茶壶，因为过时而被丢弃。

一个艺术家把它捡来，不小心又把盖儿上的把手摔掉了。于是他用一个废旧的锥子把按在盖儿上做把手，之后又不断在锥子把上放上他的新展品…
这次他从一个人正在读的一本书中剪下来最重要的部分，这部分来自读者认为最重要的几页书，剪下来的部分呈自然的树叶形，很好看…,
这部分读者还没看，等他读到这部分的时候，他会到那个被丢弃的茶壶上的那个被丢弃的锥子把上去找那新长出来的几片新树叶…
孔子云：“何陋之有？”

A teapot was abandoned for being out of fashion. An artist adopted it but broke the knob on its lid. He replaced it with the handle of a disused awl, which formed a stage of continuous, temporary displays…
In this 5th edition, a reader was invited to select a book he had just started. The reader found a section he hadn’t read, but that he believed to be important, and cut it out to display on the teapot.

Upon seeing the result, the reader said: “They look like leaves in nature, very nice…”

When he reaches this section, the reader will find the newly grown leaves on the top of a disused awl handle on the top of the abandoned teapot.

Confucius once said: “How could we call a room humble as long as there is a virtuous and wise man in it?”

– Michael EDDY and 曲一箴 QU Yizhen.

Che Fei and CU OFFICE’s trans-community: Jin Street Model
车飞与超城建筑的超街区：“金街模型”

Trans-Community space usage distribution. 金街模型空间利用展示。

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失物品 007：带碳素纤维指节、Clarino®加强的手心与其它不知道什么用途的橡胶部件”street”体育手套
日期：2011年03月初，晚上（具体时间不明确）
地点：家作坊 厨房饭桌 （交道口北二条8号）

Lost & Found Object No. 007:  protective street rider gloves with carbon fiber knuckles and Clarino® reinforced palms and other rubber parts with unknown purpose
Date & Time: early March 2011, evening (time unspecified)
Location: HomeShop eating table (Jiaodaokou Beiertiao Number 8)

失物品 008：寿司套餐，可能是香辣鱼肉卷？
日期：2011年03月19日，早上11.16
地点：雍和宫大街，交道口北二条胡同口斜对面

Lost & Found Object No. 008:  sushi set (spicy crab roll?)
Date & Time: 19 March 2011, 11:16
Location: Yonghegong Dajie, diagonally across the street from the entrance of Jiaodaokou Beiertiao hutong

—–

如果您要收回这些物品，请跟家作坊联系。Please contact HomeShop to reclaim these items.

We are interested in the production of the commons at the same time that we understand the current impossibility of completely freeing questions of sustainability from commercialisation. This is the beginning of a series that models without being a model, a working that is thinking or process—an attempt to address the scripts and imbalances that define most of our daily relations in an era of late capitalism. Are we makers or audiences? Neighbours or friends—buyers or sellers? To consider such relations in a mutually beneficial and non-hierarchical manner is to examine the commons from another perspective, to find and enact the not fully scripted.

SERVICE N° 001：共享工作空间 shared workspace

SERVICE N° 002：一个鼓励吸烟者多琢磨过去的时代和遗迹的创意抽烟区 a smoking area featuring vintage postcards sent from Italy, displayed to encourage the smoking individual to take a moment and reflect on the passing of time and the beauty of ruins

SERVICE N° 003：工作时死皮剥落服务 while-you-work natural cat lick exfoliating

SERVICE N° 004：家作坊自烤的面包和酱 home-baked bread and spreads

SERVICE N° 005：“外地”扎活，“本地”看客 ‘outside’ labour, ‘local’ onlooking

SERVICE N° 006：复印打印扫描 printing/photocopying/scanning

SERVICE N° 007：跟磨刀师傅砍价 bargaining with the knife sharpener

SERVICE N° 008：简单插花道 simple ikebana

“I’m Dark Matter! that’s what I am!”

For the next meeting of Happy Friends Reading Club, March 30th at 6pm, we will be discussing a chapter from Gregory Sholette’s 2011 book Dark Matter. Orianna explains:

“why did i pick it? because i think that sholette attempts the first critical history of political and activist art practice. as such the book covers critical art ensemble and also a lot of the territory brought up by brian holmes. however, i think that it is really good to think about in relation to the buchloh article as well, which heavily critiqued not only contemporary curation  but the art object as document. this critique is in stark contrast to our previous readings and to sholette’s arguments about activist practices. i wonder how the practices sholette cites work against or to expose dominant ideologies? but also how these works problematize buchloh’s instance on the autonomy of the art object and subsequently art history? i also wonder how these practices relate to the avant-garde in contemporary chinese art? is it possible to think through an activist art in china?”

You are welcome to join.

Happy Friends met on February 26th.
The significance of “Electronic Civil Disobedience,” the text by Critical Art Ensemble that had been chosen back in January, had somehow shifted over the course of a month that had elapsed rather dramatically throughout the world.
A month before, the most salient resonance with the text in the present had been the ongoing case of Wikileaks.
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Gentrification and the Everyday

By Edward Sanderson

Part 3: Everyday Life

Occupation, as I talked about in the previous part, is an expression of the Everyday and an important part of Everyday Life involves the active occupation of space, for example in the way the HomeShop has come to occupy its new site. The consequences of occupation threaten institutionalisation, which may lead to gentrification in its imposition of permanent change on an area.
On the other hand institutionalisation protects HomeShop’s work from over-ephemerality or instant dispersal. The positive side of this comes from an example of activism, as Isaac Mao points out:

“… In China, many dissidents and activists are opening up their personal information. Why? Because previously they just wanted to close it down to protect themselves without being tracked by the government. Someone might want people to know his position so he can do things secretly. But now many are opening up this information because they see the social power. Once they’ve opened up their position, home phone, and travel plans, more people in the cloud know where they are at the same time as the authorities. He is protected even as he is tracked.”
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