About

Project: Cyber-Estate


When does a dwelling cease to be a home and become just a house? Or does it ever?

An abandoned house gains a melancholy quality through the contemplation of its history and family mythologies. 

We all project our own memories and sense of nostalgia onto a vacated home and wonder about its existence.

David Malouf wrote in his book 12 Edmonstone St, that if walls truly do have ears then a house becomes heavy with the weight of past "beliefs, loyalties, anxieties, affections that shape a life and whose outline we enter and outgrow".

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

My fascination with empty houses stems from my current art practice exploring family mythology using former homes as metaphors for our own complex history.

Mildura, Victoria is situated here

I live in the small city of Mildura, Victoria, Australia. Suburban estates sprawl out into areas that once were vineyards and orange orchards. Often all that remains are the abandoned family homes of former farmers and landowners.

There are no doubt houses like this dotted across Australia and indeed around the world. They are all shaped by the various locations, family needs and even cultural traditions surrounded by and embedded within them.

With your help, l hope to create a 'Cyber- Estate' of abandoned houses from  locations around the globe. Once you start looking, abandoned houses will seem to be everywhere. 

It might be a house you walk past everyday on your way to school or work. So stop, take a picture using any device you have at your disposal. 

Email me your favourite abandoned house and it will be included on this blog. Don't forget to post a comment and tell me about the house too!


If you would like to contribute, please upload images and information to: deserteddomains@gmail.com