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Talk 20 – Pecha Kucha Windsor

Talk 20, Windsor

“Talk20 is not a lecture but a gathering, an open forum for the dissemination of ideas in art, architecture and design.  Produced in cities around the world talk20 has emerged as a live catalogue of contemporary creative production that seeks to instigate a conversation within and without the design community.”

Last night’s Talk 20, put on by Jodi Green was absolutely fantastic.  I don’t think I’ve ever left an event feeling so inspired, motivated and informed.  There was an overwhelming turnout.  Artcite was so jam packed that people had to grab some chairs from Phog Lounge and carry them through the cold, down University.  But even with the added seating, there they still didn’t have enough chairs for everyone.  People were lined up against the wall, standing around the back, crouched down at the front, all trying to squeeze into a little room to hear the presenters give their 7 minute presentation.

More photos, some details on the presentations, and the video of the Broken City Lab presentation after the jump.

Continue reading “Talk 20 – Pecha Kucha Windsor”

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Available Online For Free

Evan Roth's stickers

To coincide with the upcoming opening of his show in Vienna, Evan Roth (of GRL & FAT Labs fame), had these stickers made up to read, “AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE,” and placed them on a number of products that are, as you imagine, likely available online for free.

The sticker design is available for free as well, in eps format, to send off to a sticker-printer of your choice.

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Brainstorming Community Gardens

Community Garden mockup for the Sandwich community in Windsor, Ontario

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, so trying to get something at the riverfront shouldn’t overlap with their efforts.

After the meeting we did a site visit to start brainstorming, taking some photos and making some notes. Josh and I did some sketches and really rough mockups to try to start imaging some potentials for the garden. We liked the idea of circular planters, similar to the Victory Gardens, I’ve posted on previously, so that’s what you’re seeing in the aerial photo above, with the  planters being those 12 small dots near the windmill. Though, the planters would probably vary in size, and in general would  be larger than what’s mocked-up above. 

Ideally, a garden that we initiate can act as a pilot project for the rest of the city. There’s a long way to go with this project, but I wanted to make this first post to mark the start.

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Windsor Archives

a map of Windsor

I went to the Windsor Archives at the downtown Windsor Public Library with Lee Rodney’s Border Culture class on Thursday. The city’s archives are uninsured and sit in the basement, in the same room as the water main for the building, with some record books, maps, and architectural drawings un-boxed and unprotected, though most looked to be in acid-free (though certainly not water-proof) boxes.

The map above was one of the many articles from the archive we got to see, and I think it dates to sometime in the 1950s. Interestingly, there are these areas marked as abandoned, and it made me think back to our beginnings at a Google map that marked out, among many things, some of the abandoned properties (in particular, the abandoned big-box stores).

I’m curious as to why these areas were ever marked as abandoned, though unfortunately I didn’t note what kind of map this was. If anyone has any guesses, let me know.

So, the Windsor Archives are a really interesting place if you’ve never been, and the archivist that we met with seemed very eager to help with researching. With over 10,000 photos alone, on top of thousands upon thousands of other documents, I think it’s worth exploring further.

They also accept contributions.

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Light Lane

Light LaneIn anticipation of a time when we will feel comfortable in long-sleeved shirts, I’ve revisited an early BCL discovery: bicycle safety using light! While I’m not too sure how we could use lasers to create images, I have no doubts that we could use them for a handful of other Windsor-related projects. If this “Light Lane” concept becomes a reality, and people do not abuse it, it could prove to be a cost-effective way of keeping cyclists spatially segregated from motorists.

The Light Lane‘s creators, Alex Tee and Evan Gant, describe the project as such: “Our system projects a crisply defined virtual bike lane onto pavement, using a laser, providing the driver with a familiar boundary to avoid. With a wider margin of safety, bikers will regain their confidence to ride at night, making the bike a more viable commuting alternative.”

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Billie McLaughlin’s Untitled

Huron Church

Installed alongside Huron Church Road, this large sculpture was made by Billie McLaughlin for Rod Strickland’s Advanced Sculpture class. The project requirements involved sourcing all the material for the work from existing sources (a zero-footprint sculpture). The 9 ft tall wooden gas mask was made from 100% reused wood, salvaged from the garbage of our community.

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The Watermarks Project

The Watermarks Project

In order to highlight the possible future-effects of rising sea levels in Bristol, England, the Watermarks Project was initiated by Chris Bodle, a landscape architect. Notes and lines demarcating the rising water will be projected on buildings and infrastructure throughout the city.

This project is a great example of annotating the city, relaying information to the public that would be otherwise unknown or unrealized.

[via Rhizome]

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Making Things Happen (For A Week Straight)

From March 2 – 6, 2009, BROKEN CITY LAB be taking over the Lebel Gallery as a project site. Though we’re using the gallery, this isn’t going to be a normal exhibition; the space is going to function as a big collective office / studio for everyone, so we can work on a number of ongoing projects simultaneously and in a sustained way. Consider it week-long office hours.

And instead of an opening, we’re going to work in the Noiseborder space in the basement of Lambton Tower on Thursday, March 5th at 7pm, in a yet-to-be-announced activity (stay tuned). 

Mark the dates and leave some time to come by and participate. We’ll be posting more details on everything happening that week soon.

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Talk20 / Pecha Kucha

Talk20 in Windsor, Ontario at Artcite

Organized by local artist Jodi Green, the Windsor iteration of Talk20 happens on Thursday, February 19th, and will feature six-minute presentations by Mita Williams, Rod Strickland, Tom Lucier, Pina and Adriano Ciotoli, Andrew Foot, and Justin Langlois.

“Talk20 is not a lecture but a gathering, an open forum for the dissemination of ideas in art, architecture and design.  Produced in cities around the world talk20 has emerged as a live catalogue of contemporary creative production that seeks to instigate a conversation within and without the design community.”

The presentations start at 7:30pm at Artcite. See you there!