Billy Dante
'home STREET home' - LEGGERO SERIES
Billy Dante developed a line of domestic products to be installed in the urban landscape, artistically examining the psychological trauma endured by the homeless community.
Domestic moments in the urban landscape, thought provoking beacons of hope and solidarity.
Inspired by the homeless crisis, this project is core interaction. Taking the simple domestic interactions with technology that shape our feeling of home, and placing these in the urban landscape begins a critical discussion on the psychological trauma endured by the homeless community. These products offer a chance to illuminate a moment of positivity and solidarity to an issue which society does not want to face.
Examining the societal exclusion that the homeless community are often subjected too, these moments which have a familiarity and expected response once in the street become aliens. Recording each click captures the interactions in Hertzian Space on the Electromagnetic Landscape, posing the question can occupying digital space restore a feeling of ownership and dignity for those who own no physical space?
The Leggaro series of products. The Leggaro series of artefacts is made up of 3 different devices. The name Leggaro, meaning ‘light’, referring to weigh. These interactions carry little significant weight in our lives other then functionality when in their expected environment, however out of context these interactions can become thought provoking points of entry into the human trauma of homelessness, these artefacts become poetic metaphors for the people who have been taken out of context, ending up living on our streets.
The ‘home STREET home’ online store is reminiscent of large corporate home-store retailer websites, presenting the objects in idlic situations. Playing on our consumerist society and entices purchase, but also critically examines our obsession with things. Customers do not purchase the physical device but the money goes to installing a device on the street, with a % of proceeds going to a charity working to aid the homeless.