Smorgasborder 02: Rewriting Windsor
Last night’s Noiseborder event was a success. A number of people came down to Studio A in Lambton tower and helped us collaboratively rewrite Windsor’s history using maps, time lines, and story boards. All content was digitally remixed and projected on the screen with old photos and videos of Windsor.
Justin started off the night by explaining the goal and purpose of the event, encouraging everyone to pick up the various pens and markers around them and collectively write down personal/fictional/”what you can remember” events from Windsor.
Everyone was busy drawing, writing, creating new ideas and remembering their past.
Immony and Justin remixed the visuals. They took old photos and videos of Windsor, and remixed them with the scans of the group’s drawings and writing. Brent Lee remixed the sounds. He took clips from CKLW and other Windsor radio stations, and created an ambient noise that mashed perfectly with the visuals.
Closing off the night with a nice positive message.
All the content produced will be made into a PDF, that we will put on the website as soon as possible. We’ll later publish as a book with everyone in attendance as a co-author.
![For 30 days, this project will call on over 25 different artists, writers, designers, restauranteurs, musicians, architects, archivists, and other interested parties to occupy a space in downtown Windsor for up to one month in June and July 2010 to attempt to intervene with the everyday realities of skyrocketing vacancy rates, failing economic strategies, and a place [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/SRSI-storefronts-520-150x150.jpg "The Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation: Launching June 11, 2010")
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![To get a jump start on laying the groundwork for our upcoming How to Forget the Border Completely project, we have decided to interview a small group of individuals who may be considered “experts” of the Windsor-Detroit border in some way. Kero, a musician/graphic designer/video artist, was our first candidate for a video interview. He [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/04-copy-150x150.jpg "Border Interviews: Kero")
![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 [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/IMG_0155-150x150.jpg "Field Report from St.Catharines")
![Last night Danielle and I went to the downtown Transit Windsor terminal to install the first five test panels we had printed for Text In-Transit. The panels read: everything is possible, YOU MADE MY DAY, YOU ARE THE CITY, YOU CHANGED EVERYTHING, and changing the world starts by changing this city. We had to install [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/img_9143-150x150.jpg "First 5 Text In-Transit Panels Installed")
![We made a lot of progress tonight, not only getting a considerable way through the first coat of red paint, but also testing a variety of techniques for applying the retroreflective glass beads! We also got to spend some time talking through how we’ll be temporarily installing the letters in a variety of spaces. We [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/IMG_4441-150x150.jpg "Red Paint & Testing Glass Beads")
![As we continue to paint the letters, we’re now moving onto some exhibition design for the launch of the Letter Library. Really preliminary ideas here … but the gist of it is around wanting the work to feel open… Not sure that we’ll go with tape on top of the photos like this. 4×6 photos [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_9965-150x150.jpg "Exhibition Design (in progress)")
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![I saw an ad for CCA‘s Actions: What You Can Do With the City exhibition in the current issue of Border Crossings and the title got the best of me. I quickly flipped through the rest of the magazine, then went about exploring the Tools for Actions website. On the site, you’ll find 99 actions, ranging from [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/picture-7-150x150.png "Tools for Actions")
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![Back at the end of March, we went on an Algorithmic Walk with some brave folks (who not only trusted in our custom software generated algorithm, but also ignored the weather). I had previously posted a link to where you could find a custom-assembled algorithm, should you be curious to try it on your own, [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/picture-87-150x150.png "How to Make a Randomly Assembled Text")
![We’re gearing up for Homework. It’s going to be fun and you should really consider attending! There’s a few spots left. If you do decide to attend, you can look forward to receiving one of these fine sketchbooks. Designed by Liisa Salonen, the sketchbooks are recovered paper sample books, rewrapped. They still need to be stamped, maybe [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_4871-150x150.jpg "Homework Prep! Resampled Notebooks")
Great shots Cristina!!!!
Thanks Justin!
I’m new to this site, but this looks like it was a bunch of fun. Great pics too! Can’t wait to see this PDF
hi Tim,
hoping to scan the pages this week and get the PDF up asap!
I’m not sure if these are what you are looking for.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdsanointing/3361367556/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdsanointing/3360549849/in/photostream/
hi Nicole,
thanks for those links!
Any chance I could get a bigger version of this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdsanointing/3360549849/in/photostream/
sure Justin, I don’t know how to go about it though. My name is Nicole A Talbot on FB. I can post it there.
hi Nicole,
I’m not on facebook, but could you email me the photo as an attachment? info@brokencitylab.org
thanks!
Done! Sorry for the delay.
Hey there – Is the content pdf of the event available yet? I couldn’t locate it on the site. I’m particularly interested in the historical takes on the intersection between people and the tallgrass prairie communities of Windsor, especially as relates to conservation of the eastern massasauga. Thanks in advance, Kent
Kent, yes, there is a pdf nearly assembled on my hard drive waiting to be finished and uploaded. I’ll try to get it up soon, it’ll be posted on the front page once it’s up.
That being said, the content of the pdf is really a personal and / or fictional take on Windsor’s history, though understanding a more specific history as you’ve pointed out would be really great as well. I’d love to see this being an evolving sort of open-community publication where multiple people build multiple histories of the same place… maybe a future project?
cool. thanks Justin. much appreciated. if you or your colleagues are aware of any existing (non-fictional) histories of the Windsor area I’d benefit from hearing from you. the Ojibway Prairie and surrounding remnant natural areas (Spring Garden ANSI) are unique in Ontario and obviously threatened by the urban landscape in which they now find themselves. of specific interest is the fact that, despite good work concerned citizens and govt officials, the population of rattlesnakes is about to become extinguished. this is a tragic tale that we have bascially witnessed and more or less documented over the last 20 that I’ve been involved as a conservation professional with the federal govt. I’d love to come up with a project idea featuring the Windsor prairie / rattlesnakes for consideration by BCL. glad to continue the conversation with you and others. best, kent