By Justin on July 30th, 2009, 11:14 pm 0 Comments

Danielle and I spent the day at the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture with the DodoLab team planning out a project that will take place in PEI near the end of August. Near the side of the building in this kind of walkway between two parts of the school, we saw this installation, completed by a 4th year architecture class.

The installation consists of a huge number of used coffee cups, chicken wire, and transplanted grasses and flowers. It undulates mildly until reaching the rail for the steps (in the right-side of the photo) where the planters climb the rail. The chicken wire is supported by other coffee cups and those cardboard heat-shields.

We didn’t get to speak to anyone who worked on this project, but it was another great reference for our own ongoing research.

Tagged: architecture context course school Waterloo

By Justin on July 29th, 2009, 9:24 pm 1 Comments

Spending some extra time in and around Essex County over the last week has led to the sighting of an incredible number of these road-side signs. Most often, they’re used to advertise a local shop or event, but the abundance of them on a range of properties on main roads is interesting.

Of course, interesting in the way that they hold potential for something more interesting.

Given that there seems to be no bylaws outlining the placement of these things, the next step is to figure out how much they are to rent, where in the city of Windsor they might be able to be placed, and then figuring out what we might be able to do with such signs.

Does anyone know of any particular locations of where to find these in Windsor? Has anyone rented before or have any idea on the potential cost in working with these?

[Image via Dark Roasted Blend]

Tagged: design noise sign

By Justin on July 28th, 2009, 12:00 am 0 Comments

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 number of reasons, but was also difficult as we shared the space with the Green Corridor class, so we always had to pack up everything at the end of the night. Now, we’ll be able to spread out and have a better space to work together.

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Tagged: BCL grants HQ paperwork projects research

By Cristina on July 25th, 2009, 7:20 pm 5 Comments

Green Corridor’s ecohouse recently moved to 362-372 California from it’s original Sunset Ave. location, providing multiple new opportunities for research and community collaboration.  Located in the 362 California house is a small office room that BCL has taken over!

We started moving in Thursday evening and had quite a bit of trouble maneuvering those two desks between the narrow halls and small door ways, but we made it happen!  The room is quite bare right now, but our office space is sure to be decked out in no time.  Next week we’ll start installing some bulletin boards, maybe a light fixture, and see where that takes us.  We also have access to the basement which will be great for workshops and the like.

Tagged: BCL ecohouse headquarters

By Justin on July 25th, 2009, 10:35 am 0 Comments

A few people emailed us about this project (thanks for that!!) and I’ve since seen it on a number of other blogs, so it’s about time I got around to posting it on here. Green Sleeves by AT.AW uses a simple pattern to create planters from the layers of old wheat pasted posters.

The method is great—looking around the city (in this case, Toronto) and understanding the specificities that create opportunities for intervention in the city. The results seem to be a mixed bag, in terms of plants surviving longer than 24 hours; in some cases, the plants are stolen, dry out, or are torn down for more posters.

The project is generating a dialogue and for that it is successful and it may be able to translate better to a city where its illegal postering community is less vigilant.

[via Torontoist]

Tagged: context interventions Toronto wall

By Justin on July 24th, 2009, 11:28 pm 0 Comments

Michelle and I spent the afternoon at 406 Pelissier working on more planters. We’ve made 102 planters so far, though we’re hoping to reach 150 before we launch the project sometime in August.

I need to order some more magnets.

Tagged: BCL counting downtown planters project research

By Justin on July 21st, 2009, 9:49 pm 0 Comments

Danielle and I have been in St.Catharines at Brock University working with an Ecopsychology class on a public art project (details to follow in coming week(s). We’re only here for a few days to help get the class started, but it’s been incredibly fun working with a bunch of strangers. We’ve explored the campus and the downtown and what I offer you here is a brief report on our findings.

Above is one of many, many banners on streetlight poles, highlighting a number of community members. It would seem that some iteration of this in Windsor would be a no-brainer—and I know it’s been brought up before in conversations, but new banners and some input on the Christmas-themed light sculptures that adorn our streetlight poles in the winter would be a welcomed change.

The downtown itself is a funny mix—it feels on the verge of being vibrant, but during the summer most places close early or don’t open at all. This is truly a university town, where the students seem to almost entirely drive the economy. There’s a rather large number of vacant storefronts, but there’s a decent mix of shopping and restaurants and bars, with apartments above all of them, to make it seem kind of livable. This community board above in particular caught my eye, again likely a sign of a dead place without students, though remnants of a drunken night are on the other side where a downtown map is under shattered glass.

This is public art in St.Catharines, or rather, what public art from the 1980s looks like on the campus of Brock University. The campus itself is sprawling and hugs the Bruce Trail, which winds itself around the escarpment and a wondrous forest. Though much the architecture is what you’d expect for a small university campus—late 1960s/1970s modernist architecture, with confusing layouts, awful interior paints and a sort of assholish sensibility. It’s a nice enough place, the amount of green space really helps you feel a bit better in general, but I suppose we’re also missing a key ingredient in understanding how the place works on a regular basis, that is, a student body. It was encouraging to find out though that not only does Brock have an 8-month bus pass built into its tuition, but that students think it’s the best $150 they could possibly spend.

Tagged: cities community fieldtrip public art research St.Catharines

By Justin on July 20th, 2009, 11:21 pm 0 Comments

Kind of strangely, I read about this project in the New Yorker and momentarily confused it with Canada’s Tree Museum, but ultimately thought it was worth noting given a recent conversation we had with Edwin who came by our Office Hours last week about a potential audio-based community project.

The video above describing the Holten’s project is kind of brutal (especially the soundtrack), but it gives a good idea of the way it works—acting as a kind of series of stops on a museum tour, with a variety of trees being the markers in each neighbourhood.

100 trees give voice to 100 perspectives featured in the Grand Concourse’s TREE MUSEUM. Irish artist Katie Holten created this public art project to celebrate the communities and ecosystems along this 100 year-old boulevard. Visitors can listen in on local stories and the intimate lives of trees offered by current and former residents: from beekeepers to rappers, historians to gardeners, school kids to scientists.

You can call 718-408-2501to access the audio guide.

Tagged: cellphone context history museum New York public art story tree

By Justin on July 19th, 2009, 11:24 pm 0 Comments

As part of the Green Corridor’s Open Corridor festival, Windsor’s Lucy Howe installed a series of wilted road signs, entitled Wilt. The signs themselves reiterate the bend, or wilt, in its respective sign pole and simultaneously comments on some of the many issues surrounding this stretch of road, and the kilometer or so to its north. The signs were originally installed as pictured above, but shortly after their installation, a City of Windsor truck came by to take them down.

Thankfully, the signs were recovered before being carted away and are now installed on the Northeast corner of Huron Church and College.

Howe’s work has an incredibly fun way of intervening with infrastructure and the everyday. All of the work is amazingly labour intensive, but so expertly pulled off that it can make you continually guess at its sincerity in the best way possible. If you’ve been to the AGW lately, you would have seen her work—a drooping chair and melting wall on the second floor as part of the Biennial.

Howe has another work in her archives that I’m hoping she’ll work on again, if the right place can be found. The work involves reshaping a chain link fence’s form and function, how could I not be in love?

Tagged: artist controversy interventions public art road sign Windsor

By Justin on July 18th, 2009, 6:04 pm 3 Comments

Another week and another day in 406 Pelissier, which as it continues is now part of Windsor’s Visual Fringe. It’s tough to find time to get down there, but I think we made the best of a few hours last Tuesday. We’re continuing work with the planters, which is (as they always seems to be) another fairly long-term research and development type of project. However, we made some great progress and some new strategies for designing the planters, and did a couple more test transplants.

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Tagged: BCL design downtown ironing magnets planters research transplant