INTRODUCTION

The Straight-Line Residency (SLR) project is a collaboration between Horst Kiechle and Margaret Roberts. This page introduces the project, which can be seen in more detail on http://straightlineresidencies.blogspot.com/.

The SLR project aims to facilite inter-dimensional travel with a view to improving inter-dimensional relationships. Modelled on Edwin A. Abbott's 1884 account Flatland, it draws on the potential he attributes to straight-lines to travel from their origin in the two dimensional realm of imagination and abstract thought, and into the curves and bends of the three dimensionality that we bodily occupy and that Abbott calls Spaceland. The SLR project aims to work with host locations to support such migrations. In this way, the project hopes to promote the value of Spaceland at a time when there is concern that its neglect and abuse is leading to dangerous changes in its climate. The SLR project is optimistic that if abstract thuoght can develop an appreciation of the value of physical space through the close contact provided by SLR residencies, it may be better able to work out how to prioritise its care sufficiently to prevent its further ecological decline.

The project has three stages:

Stage 1 is a Call for Expressions of Interest in hosting a straight-line in a whole or part of a building or other location by providing the project with its physical measurements and visual/textual information about its use and history, and why it is proposed as a host.

Stage 2 is to use the measurements to prepare 3D computer models that propose how straight-lines would occupy some or all of these locations, producing an on-line publication of proposals, supported by contextual information on each site. A proposal for a residency in Mann's Hill Hut—which is itself a likely victim of the concern over global warming—is provided as a model in the Expressions of Interest site.

Stage 3 is to negotiate with selected hosts to instal and document straight lines in their buildings.

Trial 1

Trial 3

Trial 4