By Michelle on July 28th, 2010, 2:19 pm 1 Comments

This summer, some friends and I have been looking for cheap or free ways to have fun. We recently got a hold of a giant parachute like the ones from elementary school gym class. We took it out to Charles Clark Square to have some fun on Tuesday night. Earlier on this month, we filled a spare bedroom in my house with balloons to play in.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: balloons charles clark square free parachute summer YMCA

By Justin on July 28th, 2010, 7:12 am 0 Comments

It’s called the Let’s Colour Project.

Ok, it’s an advertisement for a paint company, and  it strikes me as being a pretty bad idea (in a long-term perspective, I kind of cringe when I see brick buildings painted here in Windsor). Inevitably, a bit history is being completely lost by painting over these walls.

However, the video is stunning and if for a moment we can forget the parts of it that make this a possibly poor long-term choice,  it does get my imagination going thinking about how we could repaint blocks of concrete in this city.

Danielle pointed this out to me.

Tagged: context documentation history ideas paint project public art walls

By Justin on July 27th, 2010, 8:00 am 0 Comments

Here it is, or at least, here’s part of the physical archive, the scannable stuff anyways, from 2008-2009. It’s been hanging out in my filing cabinet for a long time, but finally with the help of Miranda Fay during her off-hours, it’s been gradually scanned in page by page.

Archives are crucial for taking stock, for remembering, for understanding a history. Given the pace with which we work, it’s rare to find the time to actually reflect on what we’ve done. Usually, this happens, in a way, when compiling images for an artist talk or presentation, but inevitably, even that process is limited by what was created by a digital source already.

331 scans from about a year and a half of work, early stencils, poster designs, and lots of hand-written notes. I can’t wait to find the time to look at all of it. And now Miranda has started on the 2010 archive. It’s so awesome to know that there’s now another copy (even if it just a digital scan) of these things.

We seem to always talk about compiling this archive into something legible, now that it’s digital, maybe we’ll be that much more convinced to attempt that process … but I doubt it. The fallout from Save the City and SRSI alone are still on our plates, to go even further back than that seems daunting to say the least.

Meanwhile, we’re planning to meet Wednesday night, and I’m really looking forward to this. It will be one of the first times that we’ll have all been together for a while and not have to talk about some aspect of admin-type stuff. Though inevitably, that will be in the mix too. Above, I’m thinking on a post-it note.

Tagged: archives BCL folders help post-its research scanning

By Justin on July 26th, 2010, 10:36 am 6 Comments

I took a leisurely bike ride around the neighbourhood yesterday afternoon. It’s been a while since I’ve taken the time to explore, to spend time paying attention to things. I basically wanted an update on the neighbourhood that Danielle and I had lived in a couple years ago.

The eastern edge of Sandwich is quieter than ever. Four blocks of houses (well at least one side of the street for four blocks) is boarded up, it’s beginning to feel like it will be a very long time before that situation is sorted out between the city and the bridge company.

In the meantime, the vacancies and the strange empty spaces created by that situation are increasingly curious. Those stairs need to be used in some kind of project.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: bikes flowers huron church notes parking lots research space University of Windsor west side

By Justin on July 25th, 2010, 4:13 pm 0 Comments

It might seem a bit quiet around here as of late, but rest assured we’re keeping busy. We’re in the thick of paperwork — grant reports, project proposals, etc. However, we’re also quickly approaching the start of a new project that you’ll see unfold here likely over the next month or two.

Danielle is working away on the audio documentary from Listen to the City, and Michelle and Rosina cleaned up our workspace at the Ecohouse and decorated (as you can see above) by putting up some of the remaining parts of Lea Bucknell‘s installation as part of SRSI (which if I remember correctly was put together by Thea Jones).

In the meantime, you can check out the interview Michelle and I did with Amy Miller on the Craig Fahle Show on Detroit’s NPR affiliate, WDET 101.9fm on Thursday. If you’re in Windsor/Detroit and not listening to this show on a regular basis, you’re really missing out. Below is an edited version of the show with just our interview, but here’s the link to check out the entire episode.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Tagged: BCL decoration ecohouse grants interview NPR paperwork reports research WDET

By Justin on July 23rd, 2010, 11:41 am 0 Comments

We’ve been really lucky.

For a couple of years now, we’ve been able to do the work that we’ve wanted to do, make the kinds of changes that we want to see, and create a set of projects that have kept us interested in staying in Windsor.

The Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation wrapped up a couple weeks ago. For 30 days, we hosted 25 amazing artists and artist collectives, all of whom worked in downtown Windsor and generated a huge number of new ideas, initiatives, and relationships.

For 30 days, we were very, very lucky.

From June 11th to July 11th, we saw projects that redefined the idea of what BIAs could do, generated new models for micro-economies by exchanging food for stories, unravelled and reassembled long lost sweaters, and introduced an unprecedented level of investigation into the personal histories found in homes (and gardens) across the city.

Projects that openly played with urban infrastructures, investigated the potential for utilizing the postal service for remembering forgotten places, and made many, many, many kinds of maps will all have a lasting impact on the people who were lucky enough to encounter them.

Workshops for children and adults made real and impacting use of open spaces, stories around our border realities were eagerly shared, and many delicious pies, meals and snacks were collaboratively prepared and enjoyed over insightful conversations using fresh and local ingredients.

Installations lit up and animated storefronts, interrupted the social experience of public spaces, and imagined the collapse of municipalities generated a new way to look at materials and architecture.

Performative works demonstrated DIY surveillance methodologies, actively spent time in marginalized spaces, infused the local economy with gambling earnings from the casino, and generated a factory from social media technologies.

All of these things happened here in Windsor in just 30 days.

SRSI created a concentrated series of activities that demonstrated the potential in rethinking how we attribute value to space, changed how we might think about creative activity impacting a community, and looked at the possibility to forget about a set of economic development strategies that haven’t worked for quite some time.

The things that we’ve felt about Windsor — its potential, its frustrations, and the novel possibility for generating creative work that can only happen here — were all reinforced through this residency project. We have to admit that we’ll probably do it again, in some fashion, because we believe that the projects we saw unfold are only the beginning of the incredible things that can happen in this city.

We want to thank everyone who participated in this project — without you, this would not have been possible. Your work made an impact on us, and we might argue, the entire city. Thank you.

This project was generously supported by the City of Windsor: Cultural Affairs Office, Arts Council Windsor & Region, Windsor Pride, and the Ontario Arts Council.

Tagged: BCL downtown finished recap research residency SRSI thank you Windsor

By Josh on July 22nd, 2010, 10:51 am 0 Comments

I recently came across some documentation of a visual arts exhibit at Casino Luxembourg called, in English, “This is Not a Casino.” The show features a plethora of sculptural and installation work that seemingly plays games with the viewer/participant.

For instance, the above image is a pool table that could never be used as such. Also included in the exhibit are a trampoline with no room for a person to jump and a basketball net with an almost endless veil of a net attached to the rim.

I really enjoy work like this, work that mocks those who think that art exhibits should be superficially gratifying and easy to digest.

Via: We Make Money, Not Art

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: art casino exhibit installation sculpture

By Justin on July 16th, 2010, 10:53 pm 2 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 really struck me. While we had come up with a number of other instances of “…and then the city” lines, we could only get two of them up on the billboards and it seemed like these statements were actually the beginning of a larger idea.

So, I put together a book of 100 statements. You can see some of the pages after the break.

If you’d like a copy, you can order it from lulu.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: BCL book city font future helvetica ideas prose research text

By Michelle on July 12th, 2010, 4:27 pm 1 Comments

Over the weekend, Emily Colombo wrapped up Miss Em’s Friendly Services with an awesome zine-like handout. Lots of food was prepared and shared.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: BCL bike construction downtown food pie research SRSI storefront Windsor zine

By Michelle on July 11th, 2010, 2:19 pm 2 Comments

Friday was the last open house for SRSI. Norman Eberstein read some of his log entries written during his job, Emily made some amazing snacks for us, Kero busted out his Lemur, and Laura did another payphone intervention.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: BCL downtown research SRSI storefront Windsor