Sera Koolmees
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
serakoolmees@hotmail.com

Archipelago Homes in Amsterdam East

Sera Koolmees is conducting an anthropological study on the concept of home among residents of one particular street in Amsterdam East. Two years ago this street was developed as a pilot study by the biggest real estate company of Amsterdam and the municipality as a way of integrating different social, cultural and ethnic groups. How did this experiment work out in two years time? How did these groups appropriate their living surroundings? In which different ways did they try to build a new home?

Home is a collection of places, people and objects, which can be called an archipelago. This archipelago is formed by personal stories, memories and experiences, through which people construct their home. This is most clear for migrants who are connected to a network of relatives and places in Amsterdam as well as their motherland, but also for the Dutch residents the same way of constructing home out of different elements is the case. Domestic interiors, material possessions and the organization of home-life can be defined as an arena in which these elements of belonging are negotiated between habitants. Through the concept of an Œarchipelago home‚ the dynamical relation between identity, object and place is investigated.

The research focuses on the private sphere (house + network) and on the meaningful way in which people deal with material objects and biographical stories.

Besides being a student of anthropology, Sera Koolmees uses her position as an audio-visual artist as well as a resident of the street to generate new forms of communication and interaction between the residents and use different methods and strategies to research their home-meanings. Photo-images, objects and story-telling are used as ways to communicate, reflect and analyse the processes of cultural change, identification and the construction of home.

Sera Koolmees completed her art studies at the audiovisual department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (2000-2004) and is now finishing her study Cultural Anthropology at the Universiteit van Amsterdam (1998-2005).