BCL Report – August 29, 2008
The last Friday we had before the upcoming Dance Party and Seedbomb Demo… We now have flyers, seedbomb containers, seedbomb germination (in the wild), and tea container labels.
Toronto Pedestrian Scramble
On a pretty regular basis, I have to cross our infamous Huron Church Road intersection at College Avenue in order to get to LeBel. If I’m lucky, I’m coming from the West, and only have to cross College. However, there are many times that I have to cross Huron Church itself, fighting the timer (what is it, [...]
We Have Germination!
After taking a few seedbombs home with me yesterday, I’m happy to report that with some considerable watering, our second recipe seedbombs have started to germinate. Also, and maybe even more exciting, the test seedbombs in Michelle’s yard have also began to sprout! Michelle also suggested we should make some photocopy handouts with the recipe [...]
Jessica Banks and Ayah Bdeir: Open Source Snobs
Short video from a talk by Jessica Banks & Ayah Bdeir from the MIND08 Symposium (part of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit at MOMA and co-presented by SEED Magazine). Both Banks and Bdeir are former MIT students and research fellows at Eyebeam’s R&D Open Lab. They talk about the concept of opensource design, and what it could mean [...]
BCL Report – August 22, 2008
I’m not sure why we didn’t start doing this earlier, but here’s the first report of our weekly activities. We’ve been meeting on Fridays for almost half the summer, trying to make, plan, and do events/projects/demos/awesome. Today involved us revisiting our seed bomb recipe, beginning the stenciling for posters for our upcoming Dance Party (details [...]
T.S.A. Communication
T.S.A. Communication by Evan Roth is a 2009 Rhizome Member Selection Commission, in which Roth proposed to laser cut 8.5 x 11 inch pieces of stainless steel with messages directed at the T.S.A. to put in your suitcase for airport inspections. Roth writes, “T.S.A. Communication is a project that alters the airport security experience and allows the government [...]
Bright Idea Shade
Bright Idea Shade from Michael Mandiberg on Vimeo. The Bright Idea Shade from Eyebeam OpenLab’s Sustainable Action Group is a simply designed kit-assembly lampshade for compact fluorescent bulbs, which some people won’t change over to due to their harsh light or swirly design. The shade itself is made from a number of laser-cut pieces of heat-resistant photo [...]
In Progress
In Progress by Kim Boske. From her statement, “I experience the “now” as a complex collection of all sorts of connected influences from the present and the past; a web of similarities and minute differences caused through the slight moving of time.” [via]
Augmented Sculpture
Augmented Sculpture Series by Pablo Valbuena “focuse[s] on the temporary quality of space, investigating space-time not only as a three dimensional environment, but as space in transformation.” I remember coming across this last year, but was reminded of it by a post on vvork. It’s very refreshing to see projection occurring on a 3D object, thereby animating something very [...]
![We’re looking for an ad-hoc volunteer studio assistant to help us do some or all of the following: -Visual and archival research -Building and making things -Silk screening -Scanning and archiving -Basic print and/or web design -Materials research -General office assistance -Installation assistance In return for your one or two day a week time commitment, we [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/wpid20169-IMG_1486-150x150.jpg "Help Wanted: Ad-hoc volunteer studio assistant")
![As we gear up for the first event of our Save the City project, Listen to the City, we’re also planning ahead for the February event: Sites of Apology / Sites of Hope. Another Friday night at HQ trying our best to get as much work done as we could before heading out to the [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/IMG_6648-150x150.jpg "Already Looking Ahead to February’s Save the City Event!")
![Well, our strawberry-thyme-apple jam slow cooked overnight, but it’s now ready, and we’ve jarred it and added the labels from last night’s All Tomorrow’s Preserves workshop. Special thanks to Jen Delos Reyes for walking us through the wonders of jam making and Fallen Fruit for the tasty idea. Next week, All Tomorrow’s Problems returns as [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/wpid22625-IMG_2936-150x150.jpg "All Tomorrow’s Preserves: It’s about thyme!")
![424 Pelissier was a fun space for kids to be creative all day on Sunday as part of Imagination Lab. Merry Ellen set up her baking station over in that space. Later Sunday night, I accompanied Laura to do some more installations. The kids had a lot fo fun interacting with each other and learning [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/DSC_0650-150x150.jpg "SRSI, Day 24: Imagination Lab & Disco Balls")
![Lea Bucknell arrived from British Columbia to take over the window display of 424 Pelissier, Andrea Carvalho sent pictures of her last tactics in Windsor from Montreal, and SRSI participants get a surprise gift from a local fan. During the last few days of Andrea’s residency, she performed public interventions at bus stops and inside [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/DSC_0660-150x150.jpg "SRSI, Day 12 &13: Tactics, Presents and Garden Party Plans")
![We met twice on Thursday, and those meetings were after Michelle and I headed over to SB Contemporary Art to finally check out “On Your Mark” (a great exhibition featuring work by many of our friends) and talk about how we could partner in some way on Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices. Back [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IMG_9710-150x150.jpg "BCL Report: May 5, 2011 (Big Books & Small Letters)")
![Paul writes with great news that the Max patch he’s been working on for our window installation project can now capture audio, upload it to a server and tweet a notification. We’re meeting on Wednesday to discuss the next steps and to plan workshops for the winter! Also, with Twitter, I spent a bus and [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-12-08_00-12-49-150x150.png "Tech Update: Drift & Window Install + Twitter")
![I got the needed resistors right before Christmas, though hadn’t had a chance to post this yet. As you can see, there’s a 270Ω resistor, a 9V battery, and a 10mm LED working… along with the resistors, I got a 9V power supply, so we can make signs and run them off the wall, rather [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/img_1496-150x150.jpg "LEDs, Resistors, 9V Power")
![Yet another extremely productive weekend at BCL HQ! We’ve been finishing up the last preparations for our cardboard letters, which we hope to be unveiling them in our first chosen spot next week! On friday night, we cracked open the paint once more to paint the final coats on before we begin to add the [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/IMG_0578-150x150.jpg "Prepping for Next Week- Last Coats and Beads!")
![I haven’t posted on this project for a little while, partially because of the preparation for the ongoing Save the City project, and partially because the little time that I’ve had to work on this has only resulted in small increments. So, I figured I would wait until I had some more significant updates to [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/IMG_7066-150x150.jpg "New LCDs and Serial Ports and some Max/MSP for good measure")
![We spent the better part of the evening at our new headquarters located at the edge of campus. It’s exceptionally great to be in a place that we can use as a work space / office space that we’ll be able to leave setup. Working in Lebel for the past year was good for a [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/IMG_0151-150x150.jpg "Oh, Paperwork in the New HQ")
![So … the book we created from our research project, How to Forget the Border Completely, finally showed up!!! I’m really happy with how it looks and I can’t wait to have some time to read through it all. After this week’s activities, we should plan some kind of launch for the book. Tom’s renderings [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_5370-150x150.jpg "Guess what showed up today?")
![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")
![All Tomorrow’s Problems: the Weekly Design Night for Future-Focused People We’re hosting another round of All Tomorrow’s Problems (ATP), a weekly Design Night focused on creative and speculative problem solving.We’re going to kick things off by picking up where we left off in 2012, working through the future of local transit and mobility issues, and [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ATP-2013-2-150x150.jpg "All Tomorrow’s Problems: Winter/Spring 2013")
![This is the third calendar iteration for SRSI. We’re getting close to having things finalized, which means we’ll be announcing the whole list of artists, activities, and events very soon. Michelle put this particular calendar together after the whole crew assembled a working calendar last week. We’re also anticipating on making a long, timeline(d) calendar [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/SRSI-schedule-150x150.jpg "Making Sense of Big Group Calendars")
![Wednesday was a big day in the SRSI spaces. Lea Bucknell held her Garden Party in 424 unveiling the portraits and stories that she made of Windsor residents, ProClick Factory arrives from Toronto, Thom Provost and Josh Babcock work on some hand-drawn diagrams. Robin Fitzsimons has been training hard every day in the window spaces [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/IMG_0906-150x150.jpg "SRSI, Day 20: Garden Party!!!")
![We’ve spent the last couple of weeks developing this project, and somehow waited until the coldest night yet to install the first successful Text On Ice (You Changed Everything) project. I’ll post some more details on the (ongoing) process later this week, but wanted to get this image up first. This first iteration of the [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/img_8660-edit-150x150.jpg "Text On Ice")
![Meeting twice in a week can make such a difference in terms of how much we can get done. We’re still in the thick of planning for the first event of Save the City. We met earlier last week to go over the basics of finalizing our adjusted budget, put together the first round of [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/IMG_6407-150x150.jpg "How We Spend Friday Nights: Planning, Writing, and Mapping")