By Justin on November 30th, 2009, 6:03 am 0 Comments

I saw this project in one of its earlier iterations and had kind of lost track of it, but I was recently reminded of it through a Tweet fromDoug Coupland (he had referred to another project on the same page).

Avatar Machine by Marc Owens is a wearable system which replicates the aesthetics and visuals of third person gaming, allowing the user to view themselves as a virtual character in real space via a head mounted interface. The system potentially allows for a diminished sense of social responsibility, and could lead the user to demonstrate behaviors normally reserved for the gaming environment.

Watching the video is a kind of surreal experience—I’m not really a gamer by any stretch of the imagination, but the aesthetic created through this system really works to generate the same look and feel of movement in a game that uses this behind-the-head perspective. I thought it was worth noting just as a way of changing perspective, and working to change physical perspectives into a new kind of experience.

[via today and tomorrow]

Tagged: avatar context design game hardware perspective

By Josh on November 29th, 2009, 7:00 am 0 Comments

I don’t want this to come off as an advertisement for Kanner Architects, but since I have an interest in architecture, I thought I’d share one of their projects. This project, entitled “Malibu 5,” is a home made from sustainable and recycled materials. Because of its roof-mounted solar panels, it’s also energy efficient! The home also makes use of concrete flooring’s ability to draw in heat during the day and release it at night. What’s more, the home takes advantage of  coastal breezes and, with its large windows, natural light.

Part of the appeal for me is this gorgeous view of the ocean.

If I had a list of the most pleasant places I’ve ever seen, this would be near the top.

Tagged: architecture green housing malibu sustainable

By Justin on November 28th, 2009, 12:37 am 0 Comments

Beautiful City is a new campaign based out of Toronto that is trying to persuade the city to create a tax for billboards that would do the following:

1. A historical 53% increase to the annual municipal funding available to all artists, festivals and arts institutions,
2. Close to $100 000.00 dollars for public realm improvement for each Toronto ward, every year – for projects such as greening,
3. Almost a 1/3 of a million dollars for each of the 13 priority neighbourhoods to fund accessible youth arts programming, and
4. Hiring 17 dedicated officers to enforce the new billboard bylaw.

The premise of the campaign is that billboard advertising, unlike all other forms of advertising, provides no content to the public in exchange for taking up public space (editorial to advertising ratios for TV is 75/25, for print is usually 50/50 but for billboards is 0 to 100).

Sounds like a fairly genius idea. What other ways could we think of generating new revenue for arts organizations in the city, given the likely continuing or eventual decline of funding for the arts in the city?

[via View on Canadian Art / image of Three Billboards About Love by Peter Fuss]

Tagged: billboard city context funding Toronto

By Justin on November 27th, 2009, 12:03 am 2 Comments

I was watching Season 4 of Art21 today and was reminded of this work by Pierre Huyghe, who creates films, installations, interventions, and public events.

Streamside Day was a work in which Huyghe scripted a celebration for a small town named Streamside, which included costumes, deserts, songs, speeches, parades, and decorations. You can read more about the project in the interview, and there’s also a video there of the project.

So, I have to wonder, when will we begin our plans for a Windsor-based parade? A “Windsor Day”, a celebration of everything that makes this city what it is (which will by definition have to include the numerous things wrong with the city), a parade with small floats, inflatable sculptures, and marching bands. We’ve talked about it before, maybe we should plan one for next summer.

Tagged: celebration context costume parade suburb Windsor

By Justin on November 26th, 2009, 11:05 am 3 Comments

Monday night we met with some new friends from Detroit and had an amazingly good conversation about some of the very specific differences between our two cities. Maybe unsurprisingly, much of what we perceive about each other’s cities isn’t entirely correct, and it is exactly those strange assumptions about these two border cities that continue to make us interested in working on cross-border projects.

So, the idea is still fresh, but we’re imagining a route of travel based on the existing public transit infrastructure that can make it much less daunting to move between these two cities and experience what both of them have to offer on a more regular basis. We’re going to start charting these potential routes based on exact schedules of the bus systems in both Windsor and Detroit, to simplify the process of making the cross-border trek.

We’re also imagining greeting committees on both sides of the border and we anticipate eventually making these routes an open kind of thing, wherein if you wanted to head to Detroit from Windsor on a Saturday you would know the exact bus lines and their arrival / departure times at a number of destinations (good restaurants, cafés, interesting architecture), and maybe you might even catch up with other folks on the same adventure.

It’s about looking at this area under different terms. We’ve often talked about just how local Detroit is to Windsor, given its proximity, and yet crossing the border can still seem to be a daunting task for a variety of reasons. So, instead of talking about that locality, what if we thought about the many other places we might travel on a regular basis. Often, when traveling, you have someone to meet you on the other side of the car ride or plane trip and it’s that relationship that can often making traveling a lot easier. So, if you had someone to meet you on the other side of the Detroit River, maybe it might make that bit of travel easier as well.

Tagged: BCL Detroit hyper-local maps public transit research routes Windsor

By Justin on November 25th, 2009, 12:41 am 0 Comments

We’ve talked many times in the past about the need to do a parade of one kind or another here in Windsor, so when I saw this latest work by the Brazilian street art duo, Os Gemeos, and Plasticiens Volants, I had to post it.

The entire outdoor festival / parade entitled, LOST ART: ESTRANGEIRO looked incredible!

Leave it to a city like São Paulo to pull this off. Shouldn’t we be passing inflatable balloon sculptures back and forth across the Detroit River? Or at least across EC Row?

[via PSFK]

Tagged: balloons Brazil parade Sao Paulo sculpture street art

By Justin on November 23rd, 2009, 12:53 am 1 Comments

We spent Friday night in Hamilton at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre as part of their Labour Lounge series (organized by once-Windsorite, Andrew Lochhead).

In a little less than two hours, we led a workshop and explosion of creativity with some amazingly great 13-year-olds. We made banners, two really great banners that will be hung up in the community gallery at the WAHC for a month (soon)!

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Tagged: banners BCL fabric Hamilton paint research workshop youth

By Justin on November 19th, 2009, 12:16 pm 5 Comments

Broken City Lab is heading up to Hamilton on Friday, November 20th, 2009 to run a workshop/event on communicating through intervention in urban spaces. The workshop is being held at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre as part of their Labour Lounge series, this time in partnership with the Hamilton Youth Arts Network.

This has been the description of the workshop/event and it’s perfectly fitting: “Come on out and learn how art can interact with the urban environment leading to AWESOMENESS!” Oh, and our workshop will lead into the hip hop stylings of Lee Reed; it should be amazing fun!

The details: Workers Arts and Heritage Centre (51 Stuart Street, Hamilton), 7pm – 10:30pm.

Tagged: banner BCL Hamilton labour research workshop youth

By Justin on November 19th, 2009, 12:32 am 3 Comments

Tonight was the final night of this suite of Cross-Border Communication. We sent another set of messages to Detroit, and hopefully there were some receivers across the river, as I got to talk about the project on WDET’s Detroit Today earlier in the afternoon.

Given the winterish weather that’s setting in, we’re almost certainly done projecting for the year (with the exception of one more upcoming project with the Border Bookmobile). However, we’re already imagining a continuation of the Cross-Border Communication project for next spring.

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Tagged: BCL cross-border communication Detroit message projection research text Windsor

By Justin on November 18th, 2009, 10:05 am 7 Comments

Last night was the second iteration of Cross-Border Communication where we sent a variety of messages from Windsor to Detroit. We started with “We’ve Missed You.”

We’ll be doing the final iteration of this suite of Cross-Border Communication tonight (Wednesday) around the usual time (8pm).

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Tagged: BCL cross-border communication Detroit message performance projection research text Windsor