Learning to Transplant
Josh and I spent some of the day in the heat collecting some interesting flowers and plants to transplant for our magnetic planters project. Overall, it was fairly successful, as we did learn quite a lot about transplanting, but we’re still going to be looking for some more plants to finish up this stage of the project (hopefully) in the next week or so.
![Broken City Lab is launching a new micro-grant program and we need you to apply. As a part of our upcoming publication, How to Forget the Border Completely, The Windsor-Detroit Border Crossing Micro Grant gives you the opportunity to cross the Windsor-Detroit border. We’re looking for a variety of experiences gained from crossing the border, [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/microgrant-v21-150x150.jpg "Windsor-Detroit Border Crossing Micro Grant")
![We’re in the middle of reviewing the submissions for Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices! Using the mail-merge function built into Word, we’re taking the csv file that our form builder wordpress plugin generated from all the Homework submissions and putting them into a readable document. It’s 212 pages long. We’re working through this [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Screen-shot-2011-05-30-at-8.51.26-AM-150x150.png "Reviewing 212 Pages of Homework Submissions")
![As we wrap up production on our upcoming installation, Two Tales of a City, at Hamilton Artists Inc., our Friday night meeting was shifted to Lebel where we set out to coat the bunting with some scotch guard and just started laying everything out. Rosina braved the quick spray The rest of the crew helped [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/IMG_70601-150x150.jpg "Wrapping up Production for Hamilton: a quick look at some recent work")
![Yesterday afternoon, Eric Boucher came to the School of Visual Arts to interview my friend and fellow Windsor-based artist, Lucy Howe, for his ongoing Micro-Residency with Broken City Lab. Each BCL fellow will be introducing Eric to a person whom he has never met. Eric then will be interviewing each person exclusively on the topic of [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/IMG_5707-150x150.jpg "Eric Boucher Micro-Residency Iteration 2/5")
![After various discussions over the break regarding the next steps in preparing our giant banner for the upcoming project in Hamilton, I went ahead and did some experimenting with image transfers onto fabric. I took direction from a handy post here, which included simple directions and very few ingredients. With a simple picture printed [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/IMG_6470-150x150.jpg "Fabric Transfers and Letter Tracing: More Preparations for Two Tales of A City")
![We recently decided to demarcate some of many accidental meadows across Windsor with these Naturalized Area signs. In hopes that these signs might momentarily allow residents of Windsor to look at these naturalized spaces for what they are—that is, wonderful additions to our urban landscape—instead of the result of a politically-charged issue, we spent the [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/IMG_3023-150x150.jpg "Making the Signs for Naturalized Areas")
![Official Day 1 of SRSI kicked off, lots of new folks starting their projects, vinyl is up, rooms are painted (and almost done), floors are clean, the storefronts are open!!! Come see us. The day started off with a bit more painting and cleaning up of 410 Pelissier. As no one was moving in this [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/IMG_9860-150x150.jpg "SRSI, Official Day 1: Welcome Julie, Eric, Daragh, Andrea, Julie and Jefferson")
![We’ve been quiet on the blog, but not because we haven’t been busy. I’ve been working away at the final touches for the maps for Sites of Apology / Sites of Hope, which while taking longer than I had anticipated, was well worth it. The map looks great, we’ll be posting it on here soon [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/IMG_3153-150x150.jpg "Mid-August: Maps, Writing & Cardboard")
![Hiba started working with the laser cut acrylic, pulling apart the excess that we won’t need when we make the cast. We’ll be creating a rubber mould from the positive of the acrylic. The excess, the negative. Hiba carefully placing some letters pulled off their base. Careful work. Then, Kiki came by to give us [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/wpid18788-IMG_0114-150x150.jpg "Laser Cut Acrylic Extraction Process & Lunch Time French Lesson")
![I made some huge progress over the last week or so on this ongoing Arduino / LCD project — it’s finally gone wireless! With some more silly mistakes behind me, I’m finally getting a better handle on how to break down the problems I run into and solve them a lot faster. I remember back [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/IMG_9593-150x150.jpg "XBees, Arduinos, Serial Data")
![Monday night at BCL HQ, going over plans for moving forward on our recently OAC funded project starting in January 2010, Broken City Lab: Save the City (details to follow), using good ol’ fashioned lists and future technologies—it was amazing, in every sense of the word. Not sure how many more times we’ll be meeting [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/IMG_13821-150x150.jpg "Planning (in and) For the Future")
![We’re doing some field tests of our magnetic planters with some plants in them. Basically, we want to test to make sure the soil isn’t drying out too quickly and we’re also checking to see how well some plants respond to transplants. Above, you can see there’s a wire around the planter that helps it [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_4829-150x150.jpg "Field Tests!")
![Danielle and I went to Philadelphia to catch up with Mural Arts as we begin to work through some potential project ideas. It was a quick couple of days running around Philadelphia with our awesome host, Todd Bressi (above), looking at other Mural Arts projects and getting to meet a lot of incredibly great staff, [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/IMG_1698-150x150.jpg "Research Trip: A Visual Record for Lancaster Avenue & Germantown, Philadelphia")
![“CreateHere works with one guiding principle in mind: we love our city for what it is, has been and could become.” The non-profit organization started in 2007 and does things like provide over $300,000 in artists grants to area creatives, connecting talented artists to homes in Chattanooga, and asking everyone in their city what they [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/web_oct5-createhere-150x150.jpg "Micro-Residency #1: CreateHere.org")
![It was a beautiful day in Windsor yesterday. Something like 30 degrees fahrenheit cooler than it was just a couple days ago when we were installing at Forest City Gallery. We started and finished our project for this year’s Windsor Biennial. We’ll have a lot more photos soon. The show opens on September 21, 2011, [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_0784-150x150.jpg "How We Spent Labour Day Afternoon")