A Day In The Life Of A Homeless Person: “The Homey Homeless” Exhibition – Taichung

How do you define the Homeless? What is a day in a homeless person’s life like?

 You may think the homeless are free to do whatever they want, however, what’s the truth in that?

This exhibition may give you a different perspective.

Photo: Wei-Ting, Lin

The exhibition space is near Taichung Railway Station and used to host a bagel shop.

More recently it was rented out by the Humanity Innovation and Social Practice (HISP) Program of Tunghai University who named it “Corner No. 35” (三五成群 in Mandarin).

“三五成群” essentially means that different kinds of people get together.

The program hopes that this space will become a community living room in Taichung’s Central District, and that people of all kinds will gather to exchange thoughts, and create new ideas here.

Photo: Wei-Ting, Lin

The space then reopened on December 23rd, 2020, and the first exhibition centered on “The Homey Homeless“.

The exhibition includes four main parts, namely; “About the Homeless”, “A Day (of the) Homeless”, “Homeless People Interview”, and “Designs for the Homeless”.

When you enter the exhibition, you will first see the theme titled “About the Homeless”.

This area lists the misunderstandings or curiosities about the homeless most people carry, and makes them aware by creating a deeper sense of understanding, about homeless through a Q&A board.

Throughout the exhibition, people will gain a better understanding of the homeless, such as why they became homeless in the first place, whether they have a job or, will or have already get married, etc.

Photo: Wei-Ting, Lin

After finishing the first area, if you continue to move forward, you will see two clocks in special colors.

When I checked them out in detail, I found out that the two clocks showed how the homeless pass their days.

Different clocks are also matched with different backgrounds, representing homeless people that live in different places and have different life plans.

It also allows people to imagine the lives of the homeless in different places at the same moment they happen to be looking over the exhibition, which is itself very interesting.

Photo: Hung Ci Yu

After understanding the basics on homeless people through the first and second parts of the exhibition, you will see the six designs in the “Designs for the Homeless” area.

The six design projects presented here are proposed by students of the Industrial Design Department at Tunghai University.

Each design aims to solve certain problems that homeless people are facing in their daily lives.

The design process can be seen in the “Homeless People Interview Video” area.

In the film, the homeless and students are communicating with the students also having some in-depth discussions on these issues which changed their own concepts after making the designs.

Photo: Lynn Liao

Among these designs, the most special one is the “Carton life workshop” because this demonstrates the planning of a workshop rather than a product.

This workshop not only plans activities to let participants understand the living environment and daily life of the homeless, but also plans group discussions to allow the carton that the homeless usually use turn into comfortable beds for sleeping on, or other daily necessities as needed in life.

Photo: Wei-Ting, Lin

After you have finished please remember to give feedback and enjoy a free cup of hot chocolate! The weather has been very cold recently in Taiwan.

And after drinking it, you will be able to see the words of the homeless in the cup. The words on each cup are unique, allowing you to share them with your friends!

Photo: Yuchieh

Over the next few weekends, there are two theme-related activities, namely carton workshops on January 17th, and homeless reality games on January 31st.

If you are interested, you can click the link here to sign up for the event.

[The Homey Homeless]

Dates2020/ 12/ 23 – 2021/ 02/ 05

Opening Time12:00~18:00 (Wednesday to Friday), 10:00~18:00(Sunday)

Venue: No. 35, Minzu Rd., Central Dist. Taichung City

Curator: Hung Ci Yu

Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UrbanRenovationActionSchool