FLUX.US

FLUX.US presents a model of communal living for Austin artists in which complex community dynamics are continually built, challenged, and thus strengthened by collaborative labor and leisure at multiple scales: that of furniture, apartment “units,” clusters of units in artist collectives, and in the community at large. Space is mitigated within each unit and cluster by encouraging neighbors to cooperate in exploring physical and programmatic relationships between differing fixtures and furniture. Because neighbors are continually asked to work together to utilize the leisurely potential of their environments to the fullest extent, they form closer bonds and community relationships. In addition, tasks of domestic labor are interspersed throughout the project both in the domestic realm of the apartment units and in program-flexible work units. These flexible spaces can be used as studios for artist collectives or as collectivized spaces for work necessary for the community at large. This strategy collectivizes some domestic labor tasks, presenting opportunities for waged work in usually unpaid tasks. FLUX.US simultaneously enables residents to consider the labor cost of their leisure both inside and outside of the home, all the while presenting a new mode of collectivized living for Austin’s artist community.