Social Practice
In addition to creating avant pop music and film, Jean Future Twin works as a land liberator and affordable housing organizer. Largely inspired by her personal experiences of violent displacement and oppression by economic and supremacist forces, she uses her voice, aleatoric performance skills, community organizing experience and a sense of humor, to challenge the commodification of housing gripping American and the world. Her current social practice project addressing this crisis, is called Vacancy Roam.
Vacancy Roam
Vacancy Roam identifies vacant, abandoned or intentionally left empty buildings and homes. The project originated in Future Twin's origin home: San Francisco, and goes beyond to any place on planet Earth, currently struggling with a housing crisis and/or land hoarding.
The project researches vacant buildings (including luxury condos and vacation rentals in residentially-zoned neighborhoods) and visually documents them, through video and photographs. Performance artists, musicians and poets perform in the closest possible proximity possible to these places. A physical and digital zine are created to gift freely to the public. The intention is two-fold: to use direct action to access and use these spaces, as well as raise awareness about their status as (often) long empty spaces, often owned by a predatory land and housing speculating conglomerate hiding behind an LLC or some other made-up business entity.... and methods used to combat land and housing hoarding.
Phase 1: Ohlone Land, so-called San Francisco
Vacancy Roam is currently a collaboration between Jean Future Twin and SF Poet Laureate, Tongo Eisen-Martin. Phase 1: Ohlone Land, or so-called San Francisco, was filmed and edited by SF-based filmmaker Roary Racquel. The video documentation is currently in production and will be published here once complete. Phase 1 was made with the generous support of Southern Exposure Gallery's Alternative Exposure Grant, and the Andy Warhol Foundation. Thank you SoEx!
https://soex.org/alternative-exposure/grant-recipients-projects/future-twin-vacancy-roam
Want to Get Involved?
We are currently seeking to connect with other housing rights activists, researchers, scholars, performances artists, musicians, poets and filmmakers. We are looking world-wide as well as in our home country of the so-called United States. If you are interested in collaborating, please email hello@futuretwin.com with subject line "Vacancy Roam Collaborator Inquiry." Thank you!
