The Common Room

The Common Room is a 48 hour durational installation where visitors are invited to visit in person and/or view via a live-streamed option. It is a structure without walls that appears in any given local green open space. It is ‘home’ to Mr Heath and Mrs Heather Robinson - a couple of eccentric but lovable scientists who are fascinated in the extreme with every aspect of ‘The Great Outdoors’. However, despite the fact there are no obvious barriers to confine them, they NEVER venture ‘outside’ their four invisible walls.

The Robinson’s abode is a strange combination of a bird hide, laboratory, workshop, and a wildlife interpretation center. It’s structure is an assemblage of discarded but recognisable materials and objects: bed steads, broken chairs, discarded clocks and organ pipes - a museum of domestic detritus that speaks of deep cultural memory and nomadic ingenuity. The room is transparent, the inhabitants and their activities exposed.  It is populated with odd contraptions and the Robinsons life’s work that focuses on the flora and fauna that surrounds them.

The couple are bound by their strict daily routines and rituals that are fully aligned with the natural rhythms and timings of their local environment - starting with the dawn chorus and ending with listening to the bats and other nocturnal wildlife. Each day the Robinsons hold two periods of ‘open house’ when their front door will be open - so visitors can wander around their home, chat, ask questions’, view the Robinsons collection of nick-nacks, photo albums and some of the more unusual ‘inventions ‘and contraptions created by Heath Robinson plus They can also use binoculars, telescopes etc to explore local wildlife .

The Common Room received R&D funding via the 101 Outdoor Arts Seedbed 2025 project and we are thrilled to announce that we have been commissioned to present this installation as part of the ‘Creative Commons’ event on Greenham Common on 12th and 13th September 2025.