FILMING AND EXPLORING PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND INTANGIBLE HOMES IN LONDON: DOCUMENTARY AND DOMESTIC SPACES

Home is a complex, multi-dimensional concept, universal yet intimate, shaped by individual perception and relatable to all. It is also an ever-changing process that is both private and public, and experienced across multiple scales. This practice as research project took place in London, a city that, with its multiculturalism and vastness, presents a unique setting for an exploration of multiple notions of home. Through nearly four years of collaboration with five Londoners, the research investigates how home is understood, imagined, and perceived, and what shapes these perceptions among the participants. To examine these varying perspectives, I propose a tripartite framework to conceptualise home, distinguishing between its three interrelated dimensions - public, private, and what I refer to as the intangible: the felt, imagined, inner and often unspoken aspects of home. I explore my participants' relationships to their countries, London, neighbourhoods, private dwellings, and material possessions, as well as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and broader socio-political context on the domestic sphere, while also investigating their homemaking practices, memories of past homes, future aspirations, and sensory experiences of home.

This project draws on multiple disciplines and operates within the realm of practice-based and arts-based research. To gain an understanding of the five participants' perspectives, home is explored through both academic and creative lenses. The project employs the practice as research (PaR) approach, combining several methods: documentary filmmaking, interviews, home and neighbourhood tours and observation, alongside engagement with relevant literature and films, all grounded in critical reflection. The project culminates in two interconnected outputs, a thesis, and a feature-length documentary film, The Dying Fox Turns Its Head to Home, which together provide an in-depth insight into five experiences of home in London, considering the material, social, emotional, sensory, imaginative, and temporal aspects of home, as well as its multiscalarity. It also reflects on documentary filmmaking as a methodological approach and a representational practice in research on home, with a specific focus on collaborative and participatory filmmaking, as well as the filmmaker's role within the creative process.