Abstract Holdings is a remote artwork on housing and changing places that unfolds in audience’s homes, delivered through a website, phone call and mysterious package. Bringing the deeply personal discussions about homes directly to the audience, the show is an original and accessible artwork rooted in care and possibility. Holdings was developed from Mel’s artist residency with Data Stories, a Maynooth University based research project led by Professor Rob Kitchin, which maps the Irish housing and planning system through its data ecosystem.

The project uses collaborative, artistic research methods in its iterative processes of development, adapting in response to the knowledge, memories and opinions shared by each audience member. It considers how digital methods of dispersion, such as phone calls and websites, can renegotiate where artistic work is met and audiences to reflect on (and shape) what data is collected, cooked and shared on housing and development.

Adapting this format for the SAR conference setting, Mel and Clara will give an introduction to the research, development and methodology of the piece, leading into a performance of Holdings, followed by our reflections on the process of creating and sharing this work and where we will take it next. One member of the conference will be welcomed as our caller for the performance, which will be through the phone with two actors based remotely, while the rest of the audience will be invited to consider and record their own answers to the survey through a handout.

The project is led by Clara McSweeney and Mel Galley, whose collaborative practice spans two previous public presentations: Fringe Was Here (Dublin Fringe Festival 2024) and The City at Ten Kilometres an Hour (Ireland India Conference and Conference of Climate and Society, DCU, 2025).