Welcome to the #House Auction!

Eventful period property in sought-after location (sometimes). One bath, two bed, three staircases. A home for the live-in-a-home generation.

This unusual gem would suit a first-time buyer, or a buyer who is buying for a second or third time, or any other time. Mature brickwork, adequate plumbing and some electricity come together to make, quite literally, a house. You won’t find any skeletons in these closets, just visionary and expansive storage to sufficiently house your hopes, dreams and miscellaneous items. The house uniquely offers floors, walls and the exactly sufficient number of door frames, for your ongoing ease of living therein. A spacious garden allows the owner to literally walk outside into the garden, thereby and therefore taking maximum enjoyment from the exterior of the aforementioned property. Situated in a neighbourhood, this house is close to other things within the neighbourhood, and the suchlike.

High interest is expected in this descriptive and relentless property. Bids are welcome via all mediums so don’t miss out, contact our team today, who will be moderately happy to help you.

Auctions have already taken place on:

23rd March 2024 at Library @ The Lightbox, Barnsley

26th March 2024 at Brighouse Library

4th April 2024 at Central Library, Halifax

27th June 2024 at IOU Studio @ Dean Clough Mills, Halifax

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What is #House?
#House is a performance piece where two slightly unnerving estate agents attempt to sell a (clearly haunted) doll’s house to the highest bidder. The house is a 1:12 scale, fully illustrated model of a seemingly ordinary (if a little dilapidated) northern based, terraced back to back dwelling. Inside however, a whole host of strange things happen: an oven turns on and glows, a picture on the wall spins, the TV turns on, a lawnmower runs of its own accord, a tentacle rises from the bathtub and something can be seen lurking in the upstairs cupboard…

Beka H initially created #House as a way of exploring how to creatively integrate social media into her work. #House has evolved into a performance piece that highlights the modern housing market and challenges the tropes and cliches associated with the biggest purchase we’ll ever make. The video above shows some of the making processes behind the scenes of #House and the miniature exhibit includes a taster of the disconcerting happenings inside this unusual property.

Gil Burns – deviser, maker, performer
Rachael Gladwin – deviser, performer
Beka Haigh – concept, director, deviser, maker, performer
Nick Sparks – deviser, creative technologist

#House is very kindly supported by Arts Council England, IOU Creation Centre and Horse + Bamboo. During July 2024, elements of #House were included in IOU’s #Culturedale Exhibition at their studios at Dean Clough, Halifax.

A series of accompanying workshops for young people, run with support from Horse + Bamboo, introduced a range of the techniques we used to build #House to our brilliant participants:

Here is an older version of the house being activated by a series of tweets:

Here’s how it all started…

#House began life as #Apartment: a proposal for a live feed film, where the hidden keepsakes within a three-dimensional, illustrated apartment are revealed by interaction from an online audience, live.

The video below features an initial model of an apartment block (also seen in the image above), where a tweet with the hashtag #someoneishome switches on an apartment light. When we tweet #someoneleft, the light goes out. A RaspberryPi and an Arduino speak to each other, and to Twitter, in order to switch an LED on and off within the model, when a tweet is posted online.