The painted wooden summer house where eighteenth century polymath Emanuel Swedenborg sometimes wrote his mysterious books, thought of inventions, planned his garden or played music on his organ, is now in Skansen, Sweden. I visited here when I was three years old. Can I really remember the house? Or was its image imprinted on my mind years later? Intrigued and inspired by Swedenborg’s wooden house, I designed a paper version.
At this week’s workshop at Swedenborg House, participants were encouraged to fill theirs with images and ideas – maybe their memories, dreams for the future or an invention or two. Afterwards they cut out and folded their house to take home. Their houses included cat pilots, ornate garden designs, waterfalls, a landing strip for visiting aliens and the music of Debussy.
Participants included ten year old triplets, a partially sighted older person (‘I’ve made new friends!’ she told me as she showed me her paper house), a Chinese calligrapher and many others of all ages. I’d suggested an age range of six to one hundred.
Gentle eighteenth century organ music accompanied us, apart from when I played a few notes very briefly on my Triola, and shared my experience of seeing colour in sound and vice versa. ‘I do too!’ someone cried.
With thanks to Jacob Cartwright for two photos above
