-
Grades for Public Spaces (design phase)
Sara and I spent some time planning out some very preliminary designs for our Grades for Public Spaces project. The gist of the project is to have a series of rubrics to annotate / grade public space — or rather, use those rubrics as a tool to generate conversation and engagement in the use and rethinking [...]
-
BCL Interview on Bad at Sports!
Danielle and Justin were recently interviewed by Sarah Margolis-Pineo, a curator and collections fellow at Cranbrook Art Museum, Homework conference participant, and writer for Bad at Sports (an incredible contemporary art blog, podcast, and interview series). Founded in 2005 by Duncan MacKenzie, Richard Holland, and Amanda Browder, Bad at Sports (B@S) now features over 20 principle collaborators and is a weekly [...]
-
“Alive & Well” viewable on Google Maps
Our project for the 2011 Windsor Biennial, Alive & Well, was created with the hope that it would be captured on Google Maps to make a monument or announcement of sorts to the rest of the world about Windsor as we near the end of the year and ahead of being torn up for the new Aquatic [...]
-
Contribute to our Upcoming Book!
We received this from our friends (and Homework artists-in-residence) Brennan and Chloé, who have been compiling content for our upcoming book on our latest conference and residency, Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices. Hi All, I hope all is well. We have received a number of contributions from most of you, but there are a few [...]
-
…and then the city told itself the same old stories
For the first time in over 25 years McIntosh Gallery and Forest City Gallery have joined forces to bring the latest contemporary art to audiences in London and further afield. Together, the two galleries have published …and then the city told itself the same old stories by Broken City Lab. This publication documents our recent exhibit at [...]
The Brief
Broken City Lab is an artist-led interdisciplinary creative research collective and non-profit organization working to explore and unfold curiosities around locality, infrastructures, and creative practice leading towards civic change.
We work in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and abroad.
Notes
Hi, 5 with Dave Murray
About the Hi, 5 Interview Series Sara Howie and I are excited to begin a new web-only interview project called Hi, 5 (5 Questions). The project will act as an educational device which will allow us to gain insight into the narratives that define successful individuals. We are interested in the motivations behind ambitious ideas [...]
Read More
Creative Mornings
Creative Mornings is a monthly morning gathering of creative people and brainchild of my girl crush the ever fantastic Tina Roth Eisenburg (of Swisssiss and TeuxDeux fame). Each event has a 10 minute lecture, a 20 minute discussion, and is done before 10am. They’re also all free of charge and include coffee. The video above [...]
Read More
Wellington Ave, Windsor, Ontario
Above, a wall between two houses covered in vinyl siding. Danielle and I were on our way downtown the other day and we took Wellington after I forgot to turn where I normally do at Partington. There were architectural and infrastructural weirdness that actually had us stop, turn around, and then pull over to take these [...]
Read More
WordPress Plugin (notifying users tagged in comments)
I wrote a plugin by hacking together some ideas based on the Notify on Comment plugin. Essentially, I was looking for a plugin whereby someone mentioned or tagged in a comment (using the familiar @username syntax from Twitter) would be notified. They wouldn’t have had to have made the post being commented on, nor would [...]
Read More
Bronze (this will all make sense next week)
Danielle painted this today with some bronze spray paint. It’s that horse head from our living room. I was thinking that if we picked up on that plaque / time capsule project we’ve been talking about with a rubber mould and some plaster, we might be able to move it forward? Let’s talk more about [...]
Read MoreBlog
AQSVEFAISOASP#1 with Sue Bell Yank
A Question Sent Via Email for an Interview Series on Art & Social Practice (AQSVEFAISOASP) is an ongoing set of one-question emails sent to people we know, or would like to get to know, about things that interest us and inform our collective practice. They’ll be featured on the site weekly, usually on Fridays. These questions are [...]
Grades for Public Spaces (design phase)
Sara and I spent some time planning out some very preliminary designs for our Grades for Public Spaces project. The gist of the project is to have a series of rubrics to annotate / grade public space — or rather, use those rubrics as a tool to generate conversation and engagement in the use and rethinking [...]
Fabric Transfers and Letter Tracing: More Preparations for Two Tales of A City
After various discussions over the break regarding the next steps in preparing our giant banner for the upcoming project in Hamilton, I went ahead and did some experimenting with image transfers onto fabric.
Listen Now: In Conversation with the Department of Unusual Certainties @ the DX
We’re so happy to be able to post this — the audio from the interview Justin and Michelle did with the Department of Unusual Certainties at the Design Exchange back in December!!! We’ll be returning the favour, hopefully soon. D/X Saloon Night: DoUC in conversation with BCL by DoUC
Research Update (some things I’ve been working on the last couple of days)
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts — a kind of summary of some of the things I’ve been working on. It seemed about time. I like posting as a sort of summary for myself, but maybe it’s interesting for my dearest BCL colleagues to see what I’ve been up to [...]
BCL Interview on Bad at Sports!
Danielle and Justin were recently interviewed by Sarah Margolis-Pineo, a curator and collections fellow at Cranbrook Art Museum, Homework conference participant, and writer for Bad at Sports (an incredible contemporary art blog, podcast, and interview series). Founded in 2005 by Duncan MacKenzie, Richard Holland, and Amanda Browder, Bad at Sports (B@S) now features over 20 principle collaborators and is a weekly [...]
Two Tales of a City: Interview with Ariane from le Centre Français
Below is the transcription of the interview Rosina and I had this fall with Ariane from the Centre Français in Hamilton. While going through what was discussed around the topics of francophonie in Hamilton, I came across a good amount of ideas and phrases that could be interestingly interpreted when paired in context to the [...]
A Visual Reference for a New Year Project
Based on a conversation at our last meeting on Thursday morning, I think it’s safe to say that we’re going to start on some new projects in January focused back on Windsor. Seeing at this mason jar was at the core of our conversation, it seemed like a good idea to post it on here, [...]
“Alive & Well” viewable on Google Maps
Our project for the 2011 Windsor Biennial, Alive & Well, was created with the hope that it would be captured on Google Maps to make a monument or announcement of sorts to the rest of the world about Windsor as we near the end of the year and ahead of being torn up for the new Aquatic [...]
Contribute to our Upcoming Book!
We received this from our friends (and Homework artists-in-residence) Brennan and Chloé, who have been compiling content for our upcoming book on our latest conference and residency, Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices. Hi All, I hope all is well. We have received a number of contributions from most of you, but there are a few [...]
The Archives
![We met earlier this week for the last time before the new year. We had a really busy year, but there’s even more ahead in 2011. We spent the evening trying to plan for a number of upcoming projects, including our recently funded How to Forget the Border Completely, and a project for CAFKA, and [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/IMG_5091-150x150.jpg "Our Last Meeting Before the Holidays")
![Darren, Josh, and I met with some folks from the Sandwich Community Health Centre and Maya from FedUp to start discussing community gardens. The meeting went well, serving as a good starting point to start figuring out what we might be able to do in Sandwich. The SCHC is working on a site on Prince Road, [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/communitygarden-aerial-150x150.jpg "Brainstorming Community Gardens")
![The weekend brought all of the artists together to collaborate on each other’s projects. The Imagination Lab engaged lots of young creative minds, and Thom Provost began work on his installation. Imagination Lab had open workshops for kids today. The amazing array of supplies and ingredients made for a fun and yummy smelling time in [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/DSC_07201-150x150.jpg "SRSI, Day 16 & 17 : Collaboration")
![This week’s Office Hours were busy, hectic, and (I think) productive. There we some new faces around the table, which is always great, and lots to do in terms of planning and organizing. Breaking into groups made sense and we pushed forward on a bunch of things in parallel, but I’m looking forward to the [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/3308590586_1efbff37ed_o-150x150.jpg "Group Work")
![I wrote a plugin by hacking together some ideas based on the Notify on Comment plugin. Essentially, I was looking for a plugin whereby someone mentioned or tagged in a comment (using the familiar @username syntax from Twitter) would be notified. They wouldn’t have had to have made the post being commented on, nor would [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Screen-Shot-2012-01-22-at-1.17.49-PM-150x150.png "WordPress Plugin (notifying users tagged in comments)")
![A little while ago, we were trying to think through how to wrap up Save the City with a pair of billboards. We spent an evening really working through some ideas and came up with two statements that we felt articulated the end of a certain way of thinking about Windsor. Something about those statements [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/IMG_2247-150x150.jpg "…and then the city, a book")
![It was a beautiful day in Windsor yesterday. Something like 30 degrees fahrenheit cooler than it was just a couple days ago when we were installing at Forest City Gallery. We started and finished our project for this year’s Windsor Biennial. We’ll have a lot more photos soon. The show opens on September 21, 2011, [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_0784-150x150.jpg "How We Spent Labour Day Afternoon")
![We’ve spent the last couple of weeks settling into our new headquarters, working on applications and ideas for the fall and winter. We’ve also cleared our consultancy out of the downtown space, seeing as Visual Fringe is over and it was high on the to-do list. Having a dedicated space has been incredible so far, [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_4539-150x150.jpg "The Last Couple Weeks at BCL HQ")
![As part of Green Corridor’s Open Corridor festival, I’ll be working with 500 biodegradable balloons with “YOU ARE WORTH IT.” printed on them. The balloons will be filled with helium and some wildflower seeds, 200 of them will be launched anchored throughout the Green Corridor area and handed out to those in attendance next Thursday, June 18th. [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/balloons-printed-150x150.jpg "You Are Worth It: Biodegradable Balloons")
![Once again, we gathered at Lebel for another fun Friday full of brainstorming and map making. This particular Friday we met with Mel, a jewelry designer with his BFA from Yugoslavia, to discuss the best design for the CAFKA letters. We are currently deciding whether it would be best to stick with our original plan [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_2379-150x150.jpg "BCL Report: March 11, 2011 (Maps & Letters)")
![The wild flower seeds from last year are still good—I planted these seeds on Thursday or Friday and they’re growing like crazy already. The paper planter shaped around the spray paint can lid and reinforced with some wheat paste is holding up, as is the magnet. We have an idea for a better shape and [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/img_4085-150x150.jpg "An Update on Our Planters")
![It was a bit of a quiet Sunday, but things were still happening down at SRSI. In particular, Julie and Jefferson were hard at work all day, preparing their project, “The Peoples Museum & Fabulations de Windsor.” Above, and in between visits from some neighbours and friends, Julie preps a large piece of paper for [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/IMG_9890-150x150.jpg "SRSI, Day 3: Quiet Sunday, but things were still happening")
![Today was a great start to the Making Things Happen (For a Week Straight) show. We got the gallery basically put together, showing some of our existing projects and making it into a big studio of sorts. The major projects of the day were painting the title wall, getting a new adapter for our LED [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_3000-150x150.jpg "Making Things Happen, Day 1")
![We got up early and headed down to the EC Row pedestrian overpass between the Dominion and Huron Church exits to install YOU ARE AMAZING! It’s hard to describe what it felt like to do this—taking on this project gave us all a genuine excitement about participating in changing a part of Windsor and the way [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_1471-150x150.jpg "Installing YOU ARE AMAZING")
![Despite the snow, the lethargy onset by exam schedules and year-end assignments, and a few core BCL folk leaving town for the summer, we had a great and productive meeting. We started going through the Text In-Transit submissions, continued working on our magnetic planters, worked on our Rhizome commission, brainstormed the idea of a book, [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/img_3992-150x150.jpg "Planning for Spring")
![Something I meant to do a while ago, but I’m doing it now… I’ve uploaded the list of 100 ways we suggested to save the city. The list ranges from the entirely possible to completely imagined, but each one might just make this city a better place, or at least make you feel a little [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/100ways-screenshot-150x150.jpg "100 Ways to Save the City in PDF")
![We had another great Friday night meeting, even though Josh was sick, and even though we underestimated two things. First, we struggled again thinking through this second residency/conference idea, and the letters took way longer than anticipated to papier mâché. At any rate, with the autumn weather firmly setting in, it’s looking like we’ll be [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/IMG_3581-150x150.jpg "Getting Closer Every Week: Big Letters and New Titles")
![“CreateHere works with one guiding principle in mind: we love our city for what it is, has been and could become.” The non-profit organization started in 2007 and does things like provide over $300,000 in artists grants to area creatives, connecting talented artists to homes in Chattanooga, and asking everyone in their city what they [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/web_oct5-createhere-150x150.jpg "Micro-Residency #1: CreateHere.org")
![We met last night and started our list of 100 Ways to Save the City for our projection on Saturday night as part of FAM Fest. We’re also spent some time putting together a rough schedule for 2009 Micro-Residencies, which will likely start in November. If you’ve thought about applying, but haven’t yet, now would [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/IMG_5311-sm-150x150.jpg "Planning Our Projection for FAM Fest")
![The details: Sunday, April 11th via email & Tuesday, April 27th at 7pm, at Artspeak Gallery. As part of the Broken City Lab: Save the City project, Broken City Lab is inviting Windsorites to venture out into the city and take five photographs that showcase what makes our city “worth saving.” These photographs will be turned into [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/BCL-STC-APR-5x7-outlines-sm-150x150.jpg "Things Worth Saving")
Events
- DX Salon Nights: In Conversation December 8, 2011 at 6:30pm
- Next Week’s Adventure: Martha Street Studio in Winnipeg November 21, 2011 - January 5, 2012
- Some things you should do this week (and next): Art, Lectures, & Funding Workshops October 14 & 20, 2011
- Defiance: Disobedient Design Panel Discussion September 27, 2011, 6-9pm
- Panel Discussion: Intervention: Contemporary Artists in the Urban Space September 24, 2011 10:30am
Recent Comments