Our life has been a rather wide search to bring home the values we believe in, equality and social justice for everybody, and this follows through in our collaborations. Every community we seek out to work with has unique strengths and needs, but they all share symptoms of larger social and economic injustices. Discrimination, poverty, malnutrition, preventable death and violence all violate basic human rights.

Ongoing Development
+ Oct 20 Michelle will be traveling to Vietnam this weekend and, if all goes as planned, bring James home with her from the Social Protection Centre No. 2, Hoang Giang commune, Hoang Hoa district, Thanh Hoa province. Thanh Hoa Province is the biggest province in Vietnam except for Hanoi and HCMC. The province consists of 636 communes of which 102 are considered very poor and receive government assistance while 139 are poor but do not receive government assistance. There are 27 districts and a population of some 3.7 million. About 1 million persons belong to 8 different ethnic minorities. Some 12 percent of the province’s population lives below the poverty line. The province ranks 47th out of 64 in terms of standard of living.

+ Oct 10 Luke is starting a new CNA job at "Our House of Portland". Since 1988, Our House has provided housing and specialized services for people living with HIV/AIDS. It is a good place to be at. Also, the new recoder came in the mail and we're trying it out on the kids before we'll make silly of ourselves in public. We'll be starting our Bergwear small run sound publications soon.

+ Sept 18 6.30 PM Michelle will show "Make the Patterns" at the Sisters in Cinema. 934 SW Salmons Street Portland OR. Women filmmakers hosted by the NWFilm Center School of Film.

+ Sept 08 Having something is hard to keep. We started the P:ear volunteer training and it's a lovely beginning of new things to come.

+ Sept 08 We went to see Anthony & the Johnsons with the Oregon Symphony. It was just beautiful. chillingly beautiful in between tonations, simplicity and a still space. This is Antony & the johnsons + Cocorosie Live @ Le Lieu Unique - Nantes 2004.11.17



+ Sept 08 We moved our studio to Portland Oregon, and hooked up with P:ear
P:ear builds positive relationships with homeless and transitional youth, ages 15 to 23, through education, art and recreation to affirm personal worth and create more meaningful and healthier lives. Each year our programs serve more than 350 homeless and transitional young people.
Together we will create a documentary form narrative project focused on empowering through collecting and publishing the stories that express opinions and perspectives nobody ever asks for. Working on paper, and through sound and motion we will create an archive of personal voices of the students of P:ear.

+ August 08 We started gathering/documenting narratives. Most have to do with gender, since Luke transitioned from a female to male sex (see the Lucky blog for all trans links). But some have to do with fear, some with war/death/refugee and it's influence on an art practice. Maybe we'll keep it in documentation form, maybe it will be books, maybe both. We're not sure about those details, just about that this work seems increadibly valuable to us.

+ July 08 We started conversations with leon johnson and the CMG NOMADIC INSTITUTE
Nimble in its movements and fluid in its boundaries between business and art, advertising and activism, the Institute will be breaking down traditional and limiting barriers between design, concept, performance, and product.

- No name is yours until you speak it; somebody returns your call and suddenly, the circuit of signs, gestures, gesticulations is established and you enter the dialogue, your person-hood, your shared life, your telling, cannot be denied. - CMG NOMADIC INSTITUTE STATEMENT














+ 0708 Luke works for 9 months as a Certified Nursing Assistant at the Cardiac Interventional Care Unit at Maine Medical Center. 'I learn a lot about caring for people in a stressful medical environment. I enjoy working with patients, I learn, I am careful, respectful and gentle with people I don't know at all. I see more ways of dying than I imagined'.

+ Winter 08 AImmee Bessire gets going serious with Africa Schoolhouse and starts the Ntulya school project where they will build a primary school with 15 classrooms, teacher housing, a kitchen, and a medical dispensary.
We are committed to building sustainable school communities for children in underserved areas of Africa. Our goal is to aid the progress of learning using modern technology and environmentally conscious methods while safeguarding the traditional teachings of cultural heritage. This is when they hit water while drilling the well.












+ Fall 07 Imagine our educational institutions as a third space, inclusive, equal, outside the rules of our social power structures, holding great potential to play. A space where we can perform and raise questions about ourselves, our narratives, our visual representations, as well as our wider social/cultural context. And create art.