'Let’s Discuss' is live!
After two years in the making, Houses of Darkness has launched!
This major project, which has been largely funded by Creative Europe spans several countries with multiple artists who have been commissioned to unpack the history of Second World War perpertratorship through a variety of media. The project aims to engage a younger audience in these important discussions, 75 years on from the atrocities of the holocaust.
Stand + Stare have been working alongside web developers Fieldwork to create a bespoke conversational tool on a dedicated online platform, Houses of Darness.eu that encapsulates the digital offerings related to the project.
Our conversational tool - dubbed Let’s Discuss - takes users through a series of messenger style conversations that help to deepen thinking around the heritage of World War II perpetrators and explore how their legacy is still present in every-day choices we make, generations later.
The conversations take inspiration from archival material at three Holocaust Memorial Centres across Europe and also link to the teams of contemporary artists who are making work in response to the camps physical locations at Westerbork in Germany, Falstad in Norway and Bergen Belsen in Germany.
Having built the Houses of Darkness website in English language, we have spent the summer undertaking thorough user testing with visitors and university groups in each of the countries involved. In September, we presented the work for peer review at Watershed’s Pervasive Media studio, as part of their Show & Test programme for residents. It was great to connect with fellow residents and producers at PM and gain some valuable feedback before the conversational tool and Houses of Darkness website is translated into multiple languages. (More on that soon!)
The Houses of Darkness website will sit alongside on-site exhibitions at each of the three memorial Centres showing new artworks created by Jogsma & O’Neil, Jakob Ganslemeir, Simon Strnager and Onais Landveld.
His Name Is My Name by Jongsma + O’Neill at Kamp Westerbork
Recognising that it can be hard to articulate a response to the complex layered histories of these former Nazi internment camps, we have created a suite of Creative Activities on the Hosues of Darkness website which invite all visitors to respond to any of the works and conversations initiated by this project. In the spirit of exchange, visitors are offered a creative response from a previous visitor and encouraged to upload their own for sharing or viewing on the gallery of images and sounds.
One offering comes from a young person in the Netherlands whose sun-soaked image of a blossoming cherry tree, becomes a metaphor for the passage of time: The tree was planted in the family home by their grandfather 50 years ago, witnessing “3 generations of problems, fear, hopes and happiness”
A creative response to: Stone’s Eye View, imagine a non-human perspective
Head to the Let’s Explore page, to view and listen to more of these beautiful responses, and to upload your own.
Houses of Darkness was conceived before the conflict in Ukraine erupted into full scale war. With this pressing horror happening on our doorstep, it feels ever more important to keep learning and responding to the events of past war crimes, in the hope that emerging younger generations of European citizens feel informed, engaged and empowered to create a peaceful future by learning from the past.
The website was created in collaboration with Fieldwork, with branding from Kummer & Herman. Creative Producer for the whole project is Paradox.