Laura Paolini of Bell Payphone Labs arrived yesterday with a mission to bust open her payphones. We found all the tools and help we needed out on the street. Otherwise, business as usual down on Pelissier, with one week left to go!

The Department of Unusual Certainties have been re-arranging their workspace.

These boys are not only working on their Storefront Success Stories project, but are also finding ways to change up their office to better provoke creativity in the space.

Norman’s desk is just perfect for sleeping. Between writing extensive logs on his security position, Norman takes naps. I’m guilty of napping over at his desk sometimes too.

Justin went in to 424 to take some final pictures of The Garden Project.

Lea labeled each ward with a piece of tape then placed a matching label on a stick in the planters. During her residency, she made some meaningful connections with Windsor residents and displayed her work quite keenly in 424.

Robin continued to train for the big night on Friday.

Josh brings supplies to continue working on his I.S.H…

…and continues to set up shop at 406 Pelissier.

Justin and I spend some time looking over grant proposal deadlines in the coming months.

Laura Paolini arrives from Bell Payphone Labs with a lot of treats.

She’s got two payphones installed in 406, one of which will be transformed into a gumball machine.

Access can be gained to the interior of the payphone for service purposes by using a key, which unfortunately was lost while travelling.

Josh helps to think up solutions for how to get into the payphone and/or how to acquire tools to get the job done.

Luckily these construction workers stuck around a bit longer after their shift and used their tools to help us out!

These guys had fun helping us out! It was nice to have this type of exchange with the workers. It was a very different experience than waving hello, separated by panes of glass, a sidewalk and an orange fence.

Great Job!

This project is generously supported by the City of Windsor: Cultural Affairs Office, Arts Council Windsor & Region, Windsor Pride, and the Ontario Arts Council.

Wednesday was a big day in the SRSI spaces. Lea Bucknell held her Garden Party in 424 unveiling the portraits and stories that she made of Windsor residents, ProClick Factory arrives from Toronto, Thom Provost and Josh Babcock work on some hand-drawn diagrams.

Robin Fitzsimons has been training hard every day in the window spaces of 406. She has been receiving a few small donations in her jar, and will be headed down to the casino on Friday at 7pm to try her luck.

She has had many people join her for games of blackjack. Not only is she gaining experience by playing card games with people, but also the sit-down format leads to conversation between players.

Robin has made a few trips down to Caesars to scope it out and try playing a few games followed by Daragh, who will be incorporating this footage into the SRSI documentary.

Josh spent some time inventing at his desk in 406 Pelissier. He is posting his inventions on the wall behind his workstation as he progresses. Here is a pencil/pen combo and an interior hammock mockup.

This no-break auto bumper is an innovative idea. It would be interesting to pitch this idea to Chrysler or Ford to see what they think of his creativity.

Copyright issues are highlighted in Josh’s work. He is inventing things and then putting them on display for the public without claiming ownership to the design or idea. There is nothing saying that these renderings and innovations can not be taken and used by another individual.

Thom Provost spent his last day in 406 Pelissier sharing his creative ideas for a Detroit River Pedestrian walkway.

Walter came to hang out for a bit.

He sat down in the DoUC office and talked to Simon to help out with their Storefront Success Stories project.

Thom did some process drawings on receipt paper in the afternoon.

The long horizontal strip was a clear way to read the steps of how to built a floating platform out of plastic bottles.

Don’t you want to play Pictionary with this guy?

The ProClick Factory is here hosting YouTube Open Mic and utilizing a section of 406 as their workspace.

ProClick Factory has some free matches and swappable bags. Come in and request a video!

Sara enjoyed a nice bike ride around in 406 while Norm joined us later on at the Garden Party.

Logan Davis took over the window display in 410 Pelissier to install a litebrite board that he constructed. The piece is blacklit and looks really great, especially at night.

The work is designed so that people can change the pegs around on the board to spell words or make images. Right now it says “This City Is Our Canvas”.

Lea’s Garden Party was held after hours. This served as the closing celebration for her residency as well as a cumulation of her experiences meeting and talking with Windsor residents.

Lea’s planters are all filled with plants from the yards of homeowners in each ward of the city.

She marked the locations where she retrieved the pieces of soil and plants with pushpins. The visualization of her journey biking thorugh the city is a great demonstration of how feasible it is to travel by bike to get around.

These drawings of people who live in Windsor and take care of their yards and claim ownership of their city.

The personal stories and drawing serve as lea’s memories of her experiences in Windsor.

We prepared cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, fresh veggies and fruit, doughnuts and juice.

Lea was full of suspense all day, waiting to see who, out of all the people she met and invited, would show up to the party.

The party was well attended and a lot of visitors stopped by.

Everyone had a really good time and enjoyed chatting both inside and outside of 424 Pelissier.

Lea was reacquainted with many of the generous gardeners who offered her pieces of their gardens.

Norm was on duty, enjoying some fun times but also keeping a watchful eye out for trouble and hazards.

It was a lovely get-together with friends. Holding a garden party inside of a space meant for retail is unusual in of itself,  but then extending the party onto the road under construction is an awesome way to actively use the space that is not so welcoming to pedestrians currently.

Daragh has completed a promo of Andrea’s study of non-places so watch out for that next!

This project is generously supported by the City of Windsor: Cultural Affairs Office, Arts Council Windsor & Region, Windsor Pride, and the Ontario Arts Council.

Josh Babcock starts working on his Invention Solution Hub, Robin Fitzsimons trains hard for her big trip to Caesar’s Windsor, Kids’ crafts are on display in 424 Pelissier, The Department of Unusual Certainties are holding consumer surveys, and Thom Provost talks to the community about his ideas.

Daragh has been hard at work in his office, he has been shooting, logging and editing documentation of SRSI for the whole duration of the residency. There are a few teasers that will be available to view soon, one of which is the BCL cleanup of the spaces prior to the commencement of SRSI, the other is a small profile on Andrea Carvalho’s study of Non-Places.

Josh Babcock, Broken City Lab Senior Research Fellow, began working on his Invention and Solution Hub inside of 406 Pelissier. Josh will be brainstorming and drawing inventions and also helping with solutions to problems. He will be spending a few hours a day working hard at a desk with paper and a pencil. This is Josh’s game face.

Leesa Bringas’ Indian Road piece has been uninstalled. We are very sad to see the end of this wonderful thought provoking project. Good luck to Leesa on her moving travels within the next few days back and fourth to Sudbury. Windsor will miss you!

Rosina brought in some friends and relatives to the spaces and was gracious enough to give them a tour of the vicinities. Reppin’ Shane Potvin’s Windsor shirt hardcore.

I snuck into 424 Pelissier to get some shots of the kids’ crafts made the day before. The Imagination Lab had an amazing turnout the past few days and will run again on Sunday 1-4 and Monday 5-7.

There is such an amazing array of supplies and the workshops are completely free!

The kids made tons of imaginative creations which are now on display in the back of 424 Pelissier.

Thea Jones left these toy soldiers to be added to The Storefront Success Stories installation/workspace in the back of 410 Pelissier.

The Department of Unusual Certainties has placed little cards identifying and classifying various streets within the downtown BIA. On their map in the back of 410 Pelissier. This is just a small visual detail of the larger survey they have done.

Chris and Simon have been doing consumer surveys to visitors, asking them why they come downtown, what they do down here,  etc.

These two gentlemen stopped by the spaces after being coaxed in by my friendly wave. They had an awesome time checking out all the fun stuff going on in all three locations and also completed consumer surveys for Storefront Success Stories.

Norman’s roommate Tim Swaddling came by to say hello. Norman tried to mooch $20 off of him before he left.

Chris gave Norman a little lesson on Territorial Machines. Norman was less than impressed.

The DoUC Storefront Success Stories project made up these letters inviting business owners in the downtown BIA to a Speed Date event in 406 Pelissier on July 8th, 7pm.

Thom Provost installed some prints of 3D plans he made for a Detroit River pedestrian walkway.

He also set up a projection of Google street view images of Windsor, Jackson Park in particular, that shows the city and park during the CUPE strike last summer.

Jackson Park’s grass is meadowy and quite lovely in this database of snapshots of a very memorable time in Windsor’s history.

He also stopped to play some games of blackjack with his neighbour sharing the space in 406, Robin Fitzsimons.

Robin spends most of her day reading and researching methods and tricks for certain games. The rest of the time is dedicated to practice playing them with volunteer partners. She also has made a couple trips down to the casino to check out the gambling situation. At this point, it seems like she will be focusing on either digital poker or blackjack as her game of choice for Friday.

I spent a good portion of time getting the super huge post done from the weekend.

Later on, Thom explained his plans to Josh Kolm and Kate Hargreaves who stopped by to check out the space.

Thom is the winner of Phog’s Philantropasta contest for his idea. This young man is studying architecture at University of Detroit Mercy and is just the type of active mind that Windsor should be trying its hardest to hold on to. Hopefully Thom will be able to find a job and work in Windsor if he so chooses, as his ideas are refreshing and innovative.

Lea was gracious enough to show me some of the drawings she’s been making of people she has met in Windsor. These will be on display in 424 tonight at 7pm during her Garden Party, where she has not only invited the participants of SRSI and the community at large, but more importantly the lovely individuals that have spoken with her during her residency, all of whom have shaped her experience of Windsor.

This project is generously supported by the City of Windsor: Cultural Affairs Office, Arts Council Windsor & Region, Windsor Pride, and the Ontario Arts Council.

Leesa Bringas’ Postcards to Indian Road project is coming along nicely; some postcards with messages have been returned to her in the mail. Jodi is wrapping up her Sweater Factory with a few completed sweater vests and more to come. BCL Research Fellows Josh and Rosina have been helping the Department of Unusual Certainties with field research, and The Garden Project planters are filling up.

Rosina and Josh went out with Chris and Simon to walk the whole downtown BIA and take notes, travelling all the streets in a systematic, grid-like fashion.

Josh got lost on the way, so the others left a note for him at their arranged meeting spot, which he never received. I wonder who got to read the letter?

Back at DoUC HQ inside 410 Pelissier, their map is getting filled more and more with notes and multicoloured lines.

Thea has been working hard on her installation and it has come a long way so far, finishing the set up by installing a projection.

Thea has spent some long hours painting the windows and scraping off sections of the paint, an interesting process that she seems to really enjoy doing. I’m thinking of what other uses this method could be put to.

Jodi and Leesa have had some fun chatting and working next to eachother this past week. Jodi is all done sewing her sweater vests and is now working on the edging to finish them off, which she is doing by hand.

Here is a non-finished vest that still needs edging. All of the sweaters she made vary in size and stripes, making them truly unique.

Jodi is extending the length of the sweaters slightly with the edging all done by hand. This will most likely take longer to do than time she has in 406, but sweaters will be delivered to lucky recipients by the end of SRSI.

I can’t wait to get my recycled sweater vest made officially on the line in Windsor, Ontario!

Leesa has been working hard making more postcards as well as logging and tracking the ones that have been sent in the mail.

Her workstations have been filling up with returned postcards. The narratives and personal memories on the undelivered postcards are viewable in two locations on the 400 block of Pelissier.

Leesa has told us that the post worker who has been returning the postcards to her really appreciates and encourages the project.

Lea Bucknell’s Garden Project is all installed and ready to be filled with local plants. Lea has been engaging in many interesting conversations with Windsor residents and has started a hand-drawn map collection on the left hand wall of her space.

I can’t wait to see this project develop further. The Garden Party at 7pm on June 30th will prove to be a fun time!

Around 4pm, the window spaces get really hot as they are facing west and the sun shines right in.

Rosina has been a huge help around SRSI, she is cute as a button!

Thea was commissioned to make a window sign for The Department of Unusual Certainties using her paint and tape technique which she clearly enjoys doing. This little number didn’t take too much time away from her own work on Thursday.

Although she was getting pretty sweaty working right in the window space.

When 5pm rolls around, we are all biking off only to return tomorrow for another day of producing more thought-provoking, intuitive work.

This project is generously supported by the City of Windsor: Cultural Affairs Office, Arts Council Windsor & Region, Windsor Pride, and the Ontario Arts Council.

Lea Bucknell arrived from British Columbia to take over the window display of 424 Pelissier, Andrea Carvalho sent pictures of her last tactics in Windsor from Montreal, and SRSI participants get a surprise gift from a local fan.

During the last few days of Andrea’s residency, she performed public interventions at bus stops and inside of the Transit Windsor downtown terminal.

With the intention of creating seating for people waiting for the bus, the insertion of these benches at the stop makes the space inviting and social rather than lonely. This is a perfect intervention for Windsor due to the recent removal of the concrete benches that could provide seating for numerous people , replaced by one single chair. The new seating seems to inhibit the use of the transit system, something that should be encouraged.

Andrea’s small and powerful actions reach the city residents on an individual level, both engaging and connecting the artist directly to her surroundings and the transit system patrons who can relate 100% to her interventions.

Andrea also left some reading material inside of the terminal downtown to insert something other than corporate signage and pamphlets that people could relate to on a personal level.

Glenn from Biscuits and Gravy down at Pelissier and University sent over some gifts for Julie and Norman. He gave Julie a thoughtful painting purchased from the Annual Artcite Xmas Sale.

This is the award Glenn gave to Norman, smelling a fresh spray paint and hot glue, the award for best security guard was accompanied by a note.

This note was the only clue as to who had left the treasures first thing in the morning until Glenn stopped by a couple hours later, solving the mystery.

On Thursday morning Justin and I went down to the post office to pick up a package shipping by Laura Paolini for her Bell Payphone Labs project starting July 1.

Over the phone, the post office worker advised me to bring proof that we were legit, so Justin put together this nice little package of legitimacy including our lease agreement, business card and printed “about” section of this blog.

We brought the package back and opened it up in 410 with Norman standing by just in case there were explosives to protect us from.

A special secret was inside!  Be sure to stop by 400 block of Pelissier after Canada Day to check out what Laura is up to.

Lea Bucknell began setting up her installation in 424 on Wednesday morning. She spent most of the first day building her planters and positioning them within the display space in the front of the store. The colour scheme of the planters is an unexpected perfect match the colours used on The People’s Museum map in the back floor space right behind Lea’s installation.

Using recycled wood and dollar store shower curtains for liners, Lea is prepping the boxes for local soil and plants she will retrieve by bicycle from each ward in the city of Windsor, then holding a Garden Party inside of 424 Pelissier June 30, 7pm.

This project is generously supported by the City of Windsor: Cultural Affairs Office, Arts Council Windsor & Region, Windsor Pride, and the Ontario Arts Council.

Luzinterruptus is a Madrid-based light art intervention collective. They’ve done some really large-scale works in streets around the world, this project, Garden for a not too distant future, being one of their most recent.

From their site, “For this installation we used 110 transparent food packaging containers, inside which we put leaves and branches found in the trees in the area and lights of course. Afterwards, we placed them on a wall in an ugly square in the center of Madrid and there we left our form of fashionable vertical garden.”

The work critiques the arguably impractical value of vertical gardens in public spaces, with the collective stating, “… if we continue to eradicate it from public spaces or reducing it to inaccessible vertical faces, the only form of contact with nature will be in supermarket refrigerators, packaged with expiry dates.”

I suppose what I find most interesting about their work is the relentless necessity to encounter it at night — and that they insist on working in the context of outdoor space. According to an interview on UrbanArtCore, they head out nearly once a week to create an installation; here’s hoping summer gives us that kind of time.

Photos by Gustavo Sanabria.

[via Designboom]

Projects such as this Vertical Garden seem to be easier and easier to find, which hopefully means that they are becoming realized more often and in more locations. This particular project is a vertical collection of plant life that Patrick Blanc recently completed on a corner of the Athenaeum Hotel in London, England.

According to the project summary located on the hotel’s website, “It’s a fairytale dream of a wall, erupting with trailing tendrils and flowers eight storeys high above Piccadilly’s red buses like a living tapestry. As well as hosting native plants and flowers, way down below beside our Garden Room there’s the world’s biggest collection of non-nettly-looking nettles – or Urticaccae… This humid microclimate is the perfect spot for the more exotic species.”

Another walk along the riverfront today, this time with Andrew and Barb from Render / DodoLab. Windsor’s meadows are looking incredible, and if this strike ends it’ll be quite disappointing to see so many patches of long grasses and wildflowers cut down.

I can understand that there was a point at which people could have thought that things looked “messy,” but I think we’re well past that now. Windsor is now into a full-on prairie meadow stage and it’s gorgeous.

So, this sign, and this area pictured above, is as the sign says, a Wildflower Garden. It’s official, it was made official by that simple blue sign on a galvanized pole. So, if all it takes is a sign, why don’t we make official some other prime Windsor meadow locations and reclaim some space for “naturalized areas.” I’m going to be on the look out for particularly great locations to formalize as Windsor’s naturalized meadows.

Or if signs aren’t your thing, but you still want to work with these amazingly wondrous meadows, head out with Leesa Bringas at 8am every morning for some grass braiding.

As part of the Eyebeam OpenLab residency program, Rebecca Bray and Britta Riley have been working on a project called, Window Farms. Fashioned out of recycled and/or low-cost materials, the project calls for vertical gardens that use hydroponics to grow beans, tomatoes, and lettuce.

Designed with crowdsourcing and R&DIY (Research & Do-It-Yourself) in mind, the project is not meant to create a one-size fits all product, but rather a framework to further develop and refine the process. If urban agriculture is one the many necessary steps we’ll have to take to create sustainable cities, this is one way in which food production can be managed at a household or neighbourhood scale.

[via Scaledown & Eyebeam]

Frtiz Haeg is a difficult person to write about. That is, he has had some considerable press coverage over the last few years, much of which from the major TV networks casts him in a kind of strange “green” light, and whether he’s described as an artist, architect, gardener, or designer, Fritz Haeg (in practice) seems to dodge all of these titles. He’s not nearly as eloquent as Natalie Jerimijenko (though her Ooz Inc. project and his Animal Estates project are fairly similar), yet he does craft some very exciting language around being a catalyst for community activity, and so while I’ve seen his work in a number of places over the last year or so, I thought it was finally time to post it.

The project that seemed most appropriate to note is his Edible Estates, an ongoing collection of front-yard or community gardens across the US, where he basically directs the tearing up of suburban grass farms to replace them with vegetables and native plants. The image above is from Maplewood, New Jersey.

I’ve seen a few front yards in Windsor and Essex County without grass, but I’d be interested to know where they are specifically, or if there are others hidden throughout the area. Maybe instead of one community garden in Sandwich, we should be pushing for the transformation of all the front yards on a block to be one, big connected garden? Yes, we should.