Balloons and Parachutes

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:

↑ up



Let’s Colour Project

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:

↑ up



Keeping Track of the Archives

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:

↑ up



Getting Reacquainted with the Neighbourhood

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:

↑ up



Keeping Busy

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:

↑ up



How to Briefly Describe Amazing Things: A Recap of 30 Days of SRSI

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 OfficeArts Council Windsor & RegionWindsor Pride, and the Ontario Arts Council.

Tagged:

↑ up



Casino Luxembourg: This is Not a Casino

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:

↑ up



…and then the city, a book

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:

↑ up



SRSI, Day 30: Em’s Little Book of Friendly Services

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:

↑ up



SRSI, Day 29: It’s The Last Friday

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:

↑ up






Location

Windsor from Google Maps' perspective

Windsor, Ontario (South of Detroit)

SRSI: June 11 to July 11

The Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation invites the radical re-imagining of the possibilities in occupying a vacant storefront in the heart of Windsor for one month.

See the entire schedule here!!!

Mailing List


 

Activity

No public Twitter messages.

Follow us on Twitter

Conversations

  • Justin: I really like the distinction you pointed out between play and help. Looks like an amazingly fun time and all the better that you...
  • Rosina: yes. talk about this tomorrow/today?
  • Justin: Yeah, I think it could be very cool. You’re thinking about that lenticular rabbit you on posted on a while back as a...
  • Rosina: Serious? I would be down for it!
  • Justin: Rosina, awesome idea! The foot traffic there in both directions would really lend itself to this. Let’s do it.
  • Rosina: you know, looking at the stairs i thought a lenticular type thing would be kind of cool to see. Perhaps a two-sided message of...
  • darren: I was able to go for my usual ride to the end of Russell in the west end, thanks to the humidity finally going down a bit....
  • leesa: fantastico! i miss srsi already. congrats everyone.

Archives

Tags

3D 100 ways abandoned activism advertisements air airport algorithm Ambassador Bridge analog annotate architecture arduino art artist Artspace automobile awesome baking balloons banner banners battery BCL Bench bicycle bike bikes billboard billboards bio Blog book border brainstorm buildings bus Canada casino cellphone chalk Chattanooga cities city citynoise code collaboration collaborative collective community computer computers conference Conflux construction consultancy context costume crafts create here cross-border communication crowd-sourcing data database demo design Detroit development DIY documentary documentation downtown drawing driving ecohouse economy EC Row editing electricity electronics energy environment eric boucher event exhibition exploring extended field trip fake fashion fence fieldtrip fire firefox flagging tape font free friends gallery gambling game garbage garden gardening geography google google earth google maps graffiti grants grass green Green Corridor guerilla hack Halloween hardware history house how to HQ ice ideas image imagination Indian Road inflatable infrastructure install installation inter-city interactive internet intervention interventions interview kids Kitchener knitting LCD Lebel LED letters light lights list lists machine magnetic magnets make mapping maps materials math message michelles Michigan micro-residency mind map moss movie music nature neighbourhood news newspaper newspapers New York new york city night office hours open source opportunity paint painting paper paperwork parade park parking garage parking ticket participation party pedagogy performance perspective Peterborough photographs photography PHP pixel planning plant planters plants plastic bags pollution Portland postcards post office presentation project projection projector projects proposal psychogeography public public art public domain public realm public space pulp radio Rain reading reblog recycle remote research residency resistors reuse ribbons river roof rope Sandwich Save the City school screening sculpture sculptures security seed bombs seeds sign signage snow social practice software soldering sound Soundart space spray paint SRSI stencil stencils stickers storefront story strategic plan street street art street art submissions suburb summer surveillance sustainability sweaters tags talk tape tea technology test tetris text Text In-Transit time-lapse tools Toronto transit transmit travel tree trees tshirts tv Twitter university urban video visualization walk walking wall water Waterloo website wheat paste window Windsor wireless workshop writing youth youtube

Our Recent Research

Research Description

Broken City Lab is an interdisciplinary creative research group that tactically disrupts and engages the city, its communities, and its infrastructures to reimagine the potential for action in a collapsing post-industrial city.

Save the City

Broken City Lab: Save the City
5 months of community events to imagine how to save this city.

Subscribe

Broken City Lab RSS icon Blog RSS

Broken City Lab RSS icon Comments RSS

Events

The Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation: Launching June 11, 2010 June 11 to July 11, 2010

How to Save a City May 21, 2010 - 7pm

Open Engagement, Group Work: The Collective Impetus May 14-17, 2010

Things Worth Saving April 11 & 27th, 2010

Creative Cities Summit: Using Art to Change Cities in Lexington, Kentucky Apr 7-9, 2010

» More Events...

Cross-Border Communication

Cross-Border Communication: We're In This Together
Cross-Border Communication is an interventionist performance series based on the desperate need to communicate with Detroit from Windsor.

Most Read Posts

Contact

info@brokencitylab.org

Bookmarks

What We're Reading

Links

Meta