To share a home is a mixed media documentary, exploring the concept and experience of collective housing. Through different experimental and illustrative techniques, it gives a personal insight into the collective house Sämjan in Växjö. Armed with camera, pencil, various techniques of video collage and stop-motion as well as a communal workshop, the film documents the collective’s social life as well as its old building. Hereby, this research project explores how visual communication can be used to encourage people to reflect on the social norms around housing, as well as on the possibilities of alternative forms of living.
“I live together with Simon, Stefan, David, Josse, Arild, Denise, Maria, Nomi, Lo, Embla, Vitra, Lucy and Freddy.“
On Valhallagartan 34 in Växjö stands the big, bright yellow house with the name Sämjan. Here I live, together with my 8 flatmates and several pets. Together, we share not only utilities and household chores, but our everyday lives. The house itself is old and has been a shelter for this collective and its people for 50 years with more than 300 members having lived here.
Being part of this community has turned out to be a great improvement of my every day life. It is enriching to live together with people of different ages and backgrounds, and together share one communal identity. It has shifted my perspective of what a home outside of social norm and traditional rules of housing can look like.
Besides my current flatmates, I am living everyday between traces and marks left by the many others before me. They are telling the long story of this place, and remind everyone living here that we are living in no ordinary house but as part of an old community, as part of something bigger.
“Being at home does not need to mean being passive or alone.”
Housing in Sweden is connected with problems. There is a housing shortage, rents are getting more and more expensive, and many people struggle to afford and realize a sustainable lifestyle. At the same time, loneliness is on the rise in an increasingly individualistic society.
There are alternatives to the classical norms of housing. The most common ones are homes shared with others. The main idea here is: people actively live together, driven by the desire to lead and share a more social life based on community and collaboration. According to the organization KollektivhusNU, collective housing can offer solutions to issues such as growing loneliness, housing shortages, climate challenges (KollektivhusNU, n.d.).
I believe the possibility of living in a community should be more represented and promoted. Giving an insight into this alternative can provoke reflection on the normative form of housing in Sweden’s society and might inspire people not familiar with this concept
The narrative of this documentary follows me coming home, and shares my perspective of collective living, my interactions with my roommates, and thoughts from the different members. The focus here lies on the following questions:
How does it look and feel like to live in the collective Sämjan?
Why do people live in a collective?
What role does conflict and comfort play in this lifestyle?
What have the people living at Sämjan learnt from living there?
Within the broad spectrum of documentaries, I am exploring the topic through performative and poetic modes, making use of diaristic and poetic models. My work provides an internal perspective, which allows me to tell a more intimate and honest story. I place a strong emphasis on conveying the atmosphere at Sämjan by capturing the feeling of both the place and its social community. I believe, that the feeling of home and belonging do not need much external commentary or explanation to be conveyed to an audience.
In addition to this, I make use of different animation techniques, through hand-drawn stop-motion, old photographic documents, and video collage. Through a more abstract approach to documentary filmmaking, I seek to convey emotions and reveal aspects that are not visible to a camera.
Through this process, I was able to deepen my understanding of the potential of non-photorealistic animation in documentary. Reality can be conveyed through a variety of visual communication formats and does not depend on photorealism.
One central part in the visual process stemmed from a communal workshop with all the members of the house. The goal was to give every member the opportunity to express themselves, in order to create a communal visual message.
Throughout the years, every member of Sämjan has been part of a different group and periods of this collective. Everyone has, in some way, left their mark on this house. This is how this place has been shaped and created its identity. We, the people living here at the moment, will do so as well. The door connecting the kitchen and the dining and living room, the two most important communal spaces, became our canvas. Here, we intentionally left our marks, a sign of our pride and love for our home.
I believe in the power of documentaries to provoke change, both on a smaller personal level as well as on a broader societal one. Sharing this insight on how I experience change has the potential to encourage reflection on the topic of housing and the importance of community.
“I think I’ve come to appreciate the value of living with others and being part of a community—part of something bigger, bigger than oneself. I believe that’s how we humans should live. “ -Simon
References
KollektivhusNU. n.d. Kollektivhusen Lever! -En Skrift Om Dagens Kollektivhus i Sverige
