By Justin on September 13th, 2009, 3:04 pm 8 Comments

We met to do another round of projection tests, this time outside. While we still only had two projectors to work with for the test, we definitely verified an increase in brightness on outdoor surfaces (both with ambient light and without), though this increase is not equal to the amount of light we’re throwing at it—that is, shining two projectors with the same images at the same point does not double the brightness.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: BCL design HQ printing projection research test

By Justin on September 5th, 2009, 12:59 am 16 Comments

We’re hosting an algorithmic adventure to get to know our new neighbourhood. This adventure will be a psychogeographic walk of sorts starting at Broken City Lab Headquarters, which will take participants around the campus, student ghettos, the sculpture garden, Indian Road, and all of the little things that make this area worth exploring.

Everyone who shows up will get into small groups and share a list of instructions that will take them around the neighbourhood. These instructions will involve moving in specific directions, taking on specific tasks, and generally paying specific attention to the area around you. At each step in the algorithm, you’ll be asked to take a single photograph. At the end of the algorithm, when you return to BCL HQ, we’ll download your photos and upload them to our site to create a set of very specific views of the neighbourhood and generate a body of research on West Windsor much greater than we could ever do on our own.

This event will launch our fall activities and be the first of many open-house type events / workshops / office hours for 2009 / 2010!!!

The details:

Monday, September 14, 2009

Start at 362 California Ave at 7pm

End at 362 California Ave around 9pm

Bring your camera and bring a friend!

Tagged: BCL HQ neighbourhood psychogeography research

By Justin on August 18th, 2009, 7:33 am 0 Comments

As summer rolls on, we’re continuing our work with the magnetic planters, though we now have the benefit of a front porch to enjoy the evening weather while doing so. Michelle, Josh, and I spent Monday night working on embedding the magnets into the plastic bag planters along with some more writing. We also moved some more stuff into our office and began to organize ourselves. Michelle started out by sorting the planters that had tabs on them, which allow us to fold them over the magnets and use the iron to keep them in place.

Michelle and Josh took turns with the iron—it’s been a while since we’ve worked on them, and with a different iron, we had to work out the kinks of getting the heat exactly right.

We finished up 25 planters, some of them requiring two magnets. Michelle and I will continue on with the rest sometime this week.

Tagged: BCL front porch HQ iron planters research

By Justin on August 11th, 2009, 10:31 am 0 Comments

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks settling into our new headquarters, working on applications and ideas for the fall and winter. We’ve also cleared our consultancy out of the downtown space, seeing as Visual Fringe is over and it was high on the to-do list. Having a dedicated space has been incredible so far, and all we’ve done is basically set up some tables and go over some paperwork.

Needless to say that come September, with more people back in town and our schedules better aligned. our new space is going to be even more amazing.

So, as most of what we’ve been doing is somewhat scattered and in numerous Word and Excel documents and in the mail and on someone else’s desk, here’s a brief overview of our activities as of late.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: BCL HQ moving paperwork research

By Justin on August 10th, 2009, 10:40 am 8 Comments

We’ll give you a place to stay and resources for 72 hours. You’ll help us fix the city.

For the last year, we’ve been working away on a number of initiatives that have come out of our very specific examinations of Windsor, Ontario. The ways in which we see, experience, and move through the city have defined our tactical investigations and have, by design, been based on our deeply embedded concerns about our city.

We’re now looking to expand our research and our understanding of our city by inviting other artists, designers, writers, curators, architects, filmmakers, philosophers, musicians, mathematicians, scientists, and students to come stay with us for 72 hours. We’re looking for collaborators who are generous, energetic, and interested in understanding Windsor. We’re not necessarily looking for completed ideas, but rather general concerns you would like to investigate and workshop over three days.

We can’t offer any money, but we can offer a bed.

We  won’t do anything illegal, but we will give you our energy and ideas.

If you can get to Windsor, we can make this happen.

Should this opportunity interest you, please apply using the Micro-Residency Submission Form.

Tagged: BCL HQ research residency Windsor

By Justin on July 28th, 2009, 12:00 am 0 Comments

We spent the better part of the evening at our new headquarters located at the edge of campus. It’s exceptionally great to be in a place that we can use as a work space / office space that we’ll be able to leave setup. Working in Lebel for the past year was good for a number of reasons, but was also difficult as we shared the space with the Green Corridor class, so we always had to pack up everything at the end of the night. Now, we’ll be able to spread out and have a better space to work together.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: BCL grants HQ paperwork projects research