By Justin on June 29th, 2009, 9:39 pm 1 Comments

So we didn’t get a Rhizome Commission, but it doesn’t mean we’re not still planning a way around making Cross-Border Communication happen.

In the meantime, we’ll keep collecting images and reference points about ways of imagining the project happening.

Above is TACET by Ulla Rauter, which refers to acoustic pauses by drawing on the urban background noise making it the unwritten score of that piece of art. There’s something about instructive text that I quite enjoy.

[via VVORK]

Tagged: bridge context light night sign

By Cristina on June 29th, 2009, 1:00 am 10 Comments

On a recent trip to New York City, I had the pleasure of seeing The Eskalators play in Brooklyn apartment, during a three day, permit-less, rooftop and backyard music festival, Hillstock, that they apparently also put on!  I had no idea who they were, or what they were going to sound like, but their high energy  and the fact that their band consisted of 15+ members caught my attention.

After the show I began doing some research on The Eskalators, and discovered that they’re notorious for organizing guerrilla subway shows!  The above video is from their 4th subway show, and as you can see, not only do they completely claim the space with their music and presence, they also cover all of the subway advertisements with homemade banners and sheets of coloured paper, and also engage all the other subway passengers by having them sing along, or play provided bazookas.  They also replaced the “Your next stop…” message with “Your next stop is ’shut the hell up,’ and the transfers are ‘don’t get off the train.’”

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Tagged: d.i.y music eskalators guerilla show public transit

By Justin on June 25th, 2009, 11:08 pm 8 Comments

Another great day in 406 Pelissier. We got lots of brainstorming done and continued our planning and work with plastic bag recycling projects.

It’s been a fantastic three days, and being able to work in such a concentrated way in just one week has been really helpful in pushing forward on some new ideas. We came up with a good plan for some “must do” things over the next few months, more details soon!

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Tagged: BCL downtown ironing planning plastic bags projects research

By Justin on June 24th, 2009, 10:36 pm 12 Comments

Google’s Street View service is making the rounds across Canada. There’s no schedule that I’ve been able to find yet, but they are coming to Windsor.

Anyone have any ideas about when Google is coming to town?

And maybe as a follow up, anyone have any ideas?

There’s already a short history of artists working alongside Google’s team. In 2008, artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley invited the Google Inc. Street View team and residents of Pittsburgh’s Northside to collaborate on a series of tableaux (pictured above), but to not at least think about doing something would certainly be a waste. How often do you think this could possibly happen?

I wonder if a well-placed, but legible, banner might be worth investigating?

[via CBC]

Tagged: google google maps maps paranoia street Windsor

By Justin on June 24th, 2009, 3:02 pm 3 Comments

According to an article in the Windsor Star, the Department of Homeland Security is starting to employ Predator Drones as security measures over parts of Lake Ontario near New York.

Eventually, these will be flying over Windsor / Detroit, but will be controlled from Arizona.

Sounds like another starting point for an art project.

Tagged: Detroit Homeland Security paranoia predator river Windsor

By Justin on June 23rd, 2009, 11:55 pm 14 Comments

Today was another great, amazingly fun and productive day in 406 Pelissier! We did a lot of material tests, figured out some more details on our book, met some new people, and generally enjoyed having a dedicated workspace.

It’s going to be very hard to give up this space.

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Tagged: BCL downtown plastic bags projects research Windsor

By Josh on June 23rd, 2009, 1:47 pm 0 Comments

Since yesterday’s weather was soul-enhancing, to be dramatic, I decided to unload the small stack of tickets in my backpack and distribute them in the parking lots near the University of Windsor. I seem to be getting more and more sly with handing these out, which I’ll attribute to practice. It seems I’ll be able to continue handing tickets out for most of the summer, judging by how relentless the CUPE strike has been. Stay tuned.

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Tagged: automobile car distribution parking ticket public

By Justin on June 23rd, 2009, 12:15 am 8 Comments

Now that Intersession is done, we’ve finally been able to put that downtown space to some use. Cristina and I spent the better part of the day in the space, using it basically as an office, but we’ll be there at least one more day this week and potentially one day on the weekend picking up where we left off on some older projects and inevitably starting some new ones.

On today’s agenda: see the new hybrid buses and look for some Text In-Transit signs (which we found), set up a small work area in the space, make some preliminary decisions about our book so we can get started on it, and photograph a new research site.

Also, we’re looking for any biodegradable plastic bags you may have (hint: Bulk Barn gives out biodegradable bags) for another project. If you have any, please drop them off at 406 Pelissier. We’ll be there Tuesday from 12noon until around 4pm.

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Tagged: BCL book downtown fence planters projects research

By Justin on June 22nd, 2009, 6:28 pm 0 Comments

Josh wrote about the LightLane project a while back, and skepticism aside, it seems as though the idea is finally moving beyond just the proposal stage. The video above is essentially a proof-of-concept, but very exciting.

Looks to me like you need to ride really, really fast to get the trailing effect.

Now I’m anxious to play with LEDs again.

[via GOOD]

Tagged: bicycle city context light road safety

By Justin on June 22nd, 2009, 12:26 pm 4 Comments

This morning, on one of Transit Windsor’s new hybrid buses, we saw one of the nearly 100 Text In-Transit panels (this is the first panel on this new bus, as far as we could tell anyways). I believe they will all be installed on Transit Windsor’s entire fleet in the coming days.

Let us know if you see one (and try to take a picture)!

The panel above was submitted by Ross Moncur.

Tagged: BCL buses installation research Text In-Transit Windsor