“Architectural performance pieces.”

  STABILITY 

(2009)

• 25 foot structure is a house balanced on a central pivot with the two artists living at either end.

• When occupied the two bodies will need to move in the space in relation to one another to keep the structure straight.

• Visually separated by a kitchen and bathroom in the center, the occupying bodies will sense each other through displacement of weight. Activities will naturally change willingly or not as the house shifts.

COUNTERWEIGHT ROOMMATE (2011)

• Tethered to either end of a single rope, movement in this vertical habitat for two depends on the opposite movement by one's roommate. When one wishes to go up to the kitchen, the other must go down to the bathroom.

• Counterweight Roommate is a self-contained living unit with facilities for eating, sleeping, and working.

• It was inhabited day and night for the continuous five days by the artists.

•  The bathroom, located in the ground floor enclosure

• Two views in the kitchen, located on the fifth floor, at the top.

 IN ORBIT 

(2014)

Artists Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley have constructed a giant wood hamster wheel with a 25-foot-diameter where the duo are currently living and working for 10 days until March 9 at the Boiler in Williamsburg, Brookyln.

• For In Orbit, the rotating house is designed so that Shelley can live on the exterior of the wheel nearly 30 ft. off the floor, while Schweder lives on the inside due to a fear of heights.

•  Through coordinated movements the pair can rotate the wheel to access beds, desks, chairs and even a kitchen-bathroom combo.

• Everything Shelley and Schweder need, furniture-wise, is fastened to the wheel: bed, desk, kitchen-bathroom combo, comfy chair, lamps, and dresser.

• Each piece of Shelley's furniture is aligned with its Schweder counterpart. So they both have to work at their desk at the same time, use the bathroom in tandem, they have the same bedtimes, etc. They move the wheel to each station by walking in tandem in opposite directions. 

• Shelley wears a red jump suit, and Schweder's is orange, because that's what they happened to already own when they started the project. Most of their furniture matches their jumpsuits.