Save A City
At Windsor’s riverfront, SAVE A CITY, installed this afternoon. We opted out of using monofilament to hang the blocks of ice because there was a nice snowbank already there, and probably the last thing the Detroit River needs is more garbage in it. I’ll post some photos of the process of making these soon (definitely before the weather gets too warm).
![We’re in week 3 of this LED sign project, and we now know how to finish it up. We had previously soldered all the anodes on the LEDs, but we were a bit confused about the connections of the cathodes and resistors. As we had been working off of a MAKE video, which breezed over [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/dsc_1920-150x150.jpg "We Learned Electricity!")
![Over the weekend, Emily Colombo wrapped up Miss Em’s Friendly Services with an awesome zine-like handout. Lots of food was prepared and shared. On Saturday, Emily made a tasty fruit soup using fresh berries from the Downtown Windsor Farmer’s Market. Joe has been a regular, visiting SRSI almost daily. He knows a lot about the [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/DSC_07312-150x150.jpg "SRSI, Day 30: Em’s Little Book of Friendly Services")
![On Friday night we played with some new things that Rosina brought over — retroreflective glass beads to be exact. We also made it through another three letters doing papier maché! And, we selected a colour for the letters, again thanks to Rosina doing some recon on paint chips. So, we now have two bags [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/IMG_3821-150x150.jpg "Retroreflective Glass Beads Have Arrived, Weeks of Work Ahead!")
![On Thursday night, on what was supposed to be a test run for projecting on the side of the Jackman Building (the new drama building at the University of Windsor), Broken City Lab ended up exploring a number of locations on campus armed with a projector, a laptop, and a really long extension cord. Originally, we [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/Broken-City-Lab-is-on-the-wall-of-the-new-drama-building-at-the-University-of-Windsor-150x150.jpg "BCL Report – Oct 9, 2008")
![I’ll be spending most of the week finishing up a couple lingering parts of Save the City: assembling the maps for Sites of Apology / Sites of Hope and putting the final touches on the edit from Listen to the City that Danielle assembled. The audio documentary is going to be an overview, or maybe [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/IMG_3075-150x150.jpg "Maps + Final Cut")
![The last Friday we had before the upcoming Dance Party and Seedbomb Demo… We now have flyers, seedbomb containers, seedbomb germination (in the wild), and tea container labels. Michelle begins the process of spraying 50-something flyers after expertly cutting out the detailed info of the party. Many, many flyers (I like the silver ones the [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/Broken-City-Lab-Friday-August-29-2008-stenciling-origami-seedbombs-150x150.jpg "BCL Report – August 29, 2008")
![All Tomorrow’s Problems: the Weekly Design Night for Future-Focused People We’re hosting another round of All Tomorrow’s Problems (ATP), a weekly Design Night focused on creative and speculative problem solving.We’re going to kick things off by picking up where we left off in 2012, working through the future of local transit and mobility issues, and [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ATP-2013-2-150x150.jpg "All Tomorrow’s Problems: Winter/Spring 2013")
![On Monday, Norman Eberstein patrolled the alley, The Department of Unusual Certainties decorated their office and did some brainstorming, Thea Jones and Stephen Surlin moved in. Simon’s return to Windsor brought a lot of activity to the back of 410, where Chris had been sitting at his desk for a few days prior. The workspace [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/DSC_0783-150x150.jpg "SRSI, Day 11: Norman’s Crush and Getting Organized")
![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")
![The 10mm LEDs I ordered from Evil Mad Science came in and I went out today to get a CR2032 3V battery to start testing. I got 100 super white and 100 blue LEDs. This is the CR2032 battery, I got 6 of them for $2 from the Dollar Store. It would be interesting to [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/img_0997-150x150.jpg "LEDs in Action")
![There’s a lot to say about the Creative Time Summit: Revolutions in Public Practice 2, though I’m not really sure where to start. You should start by visiting the Creative Time Summit site and watching the presentations for yourself, then you should read the excellent recap essay by Gregory Sholette and the somewhat brief, but [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/IMG_3702-150x150.jpg "Creative Time Summit: Some Reflection with 4 Days of Distance")
![Half a year’s worth of papers that haven’t yet been filed makes me excited to think about everything we did this year and what we’ll do over the next twelve months. Also, we need to figure out when we can meet in the new year. Are Friday nights still any good for anyone? Happy New [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/IMG_5126-150x150.jpg "Happy New Year. More Ahead!")
![We’ve been lucky over the last week or so with some surprisingly agreeable weather. The had humidity lifted and with it, the temperature scaled back considerably. So, it’s been pretty much the best time all summer to do some exploring on foot (and sometimes on bicycle) at a pace that really allows for a different [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/IMG_0404-150x150.jpg "Drifting Around Downtown Windsor: Exploring the City Slowly")
![To continue the progress of our cardboard letter project, I took the remaining pieces home on the weekend to finish T, E, and R. Though the first stage may be over, there’s still plenty left to work on in terms of researching and experimenting with various materials which I looked into as well. After constructing [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/IMG_3279-150x150.jpg "Fun with Cardboard Letters")
![On Thursday, January 21st at the Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts in Toronto, we’ll be doing a projection performance that examines the language and ideas surrounding public space, intervention, urban surfaces, and city infrastructures. As part of Propeller’s Public Realm exhibition, we will curate a text-based list of ideas, statements, and questions, that address the [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/propellerinvite-150x150.jpg "Public Realm at Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts")
![Courtesy of the always brilliant Steven … There’s now a new submission form that allows you to get a quick preview of what your Text In-Transit panel could look like, along with a fun little colour swatch. If you’ve already submitted, it’s worth submitting more just to try this out, and if you haven’t submitted yet—get [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/bcl_textintransit-submit-150x150.jpg "New Text In-Transit Submission Form!")
![Our magnetic planters have finally been finished and installed (temporarily) along the alley that runs behind our headquarters. Consider yourself cordially invited to take a planter or two and move them to some other space in the city in need of a micro-garden. Cristina’s finally back from Italy, it was awesome to catch up and [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_9407-150x150.jpg "Magnetic Planters Finished!")
![While we prepare for the launch of CIVIC SPACE on June 21st with the Letter Library project, we’re also settling into a routine of being in the space at 411 Pelissier. The idea of having a space of our own is really new to us. Four years after starting BCL by meeting in the classrooms [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_8921-150x150.jpg "A Week in the Studio: Some Documentation and Reflections on Last Week at CIVIC SPACE")
looks beautiful. i can’t wait till spring though when it will be easier to get around and do more creative things. glad i could help out tonight for once too instead of just taking photos.
thanks Darren, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out too. also glad you got in on some soldering… it’s awesome to see so much activity happening!
looks fantastic!
Wonderful. I hope you’ll be visiting and photographing the piece over the weekend as the weather warms up and then freezes again. It’ll be interesting to see the words disappear as the ice becomes cloudy and then reappear again as it refreezes.
It wouldn’t be invisible, but for times when the ice needs to be tied on, jute or sisal would at least be biodegradable. Perhaps it could be frozen right into the back of the block so that it doesn’t show on the front? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all of those millions of plastic zip ties that are used once and discarded.
Oohhhh, really good idea with using something biodegradable. We’ve tried to brainstorm before ways to embed a material into the ice as it freezes to make it easier to hang. Because of the silicon tray it freezes in, It’s tough to get anything deeply embedded like that… but I think it could probably work to slowly layer ice on the back, with something like jute or sisal below it, so that it doesn’t have to be in there from the beginning, but can be added later.
I’ll be out of town this weekend, but if anyone is down by the river, this is around Askin, or maybe a little east of that, let me know how it holds up.
i’m going to ride by on my bike today justin and see if it’s still there. leaving now to ride downtown
hi justin, i rode by on my bike and took more photos. it was still just as you left it. : )
not sure if that will show up… took it while checking out your work today on my bike.
Wow, this really turned out well! And perfect timing. It got COLD.
Any word on if it’s still there, unvandalized?
I might try to check it out tomorrow… with my fingers crossed. It likely won’t last the weekend, it’s going to be above freezing, right?
I’d like to do more of this, but not sure if it’s going to dip below freezing for a long enough time in the next few weeks to make it worthwhile…
check out my site tom. i took a photo of it today
I already saw that photo Mr. D.
Thanks.