Scavenger Hunt

Designed by collaborating with caregivers and domestic laborers, this scavenger hunt brings those who are not involved in such work into direct contact with its gravity, relentlessness, challenges, absurdity, frustrations, and humor. 

Over the course of three hours, teams of teenagers are sent out to complete tasks that, for them, earn points in the competition, but for the domestic spaces they enter, they are doing the actual day's work of the household. Throughout the event, participants weed gardens, sort and fold mountains of laundry, entertain "children" at the beach and playground, clean (and subsequently re-clean as they are unwittingly sabotaged!) a yard littered with toys, wrangle, clean up after, and feed chickens, and meal plan for a (real!) family with dozens of different food allergies. 

This piece was specifically planned for a school holiday in order to provide the added acknowledgement and care of entertaining the children who would otherwise have been in school for the day. 

Upon conclusion of the tasks, all four teams return to an outdoor home-base where they meet with the families whose work they did throughout the day. Conversation is facilitated to build understanding for, acknowledgement of, and increased value placed on the types of things that are required for the daily management of and care for a household and its inhabitants. Domestic laborers and scavenger hunt participants share a meal and discussion while the children's care is provided for at a nearby pool in order to allow for the quotidian caregivers the freedom to eat and talk without immediate auxilliary obligation.