Upcoming 16mm Filmmaking Workshops with Mobile Frames Resident Daïchi Saïto

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Mobile Frames is pleased to announce our first series of FREE 16mm workshops, conducted by Montréal-based filmmaker in residence Daïchi Saïto, February 13th, 15th and 16th.

The workshops are completely FREE and open to Windsor / Detroit residents. Spaces are limited! Registration is required.

To register, contact: mobileframes@live.com
For more information visit: http://mobileframes.org/

“Introduction to 16mm Filmmaking”

Combining lecture and hands on practice, this workshop surveys the fundamentals of do-it-yourself filmmaking. Aspects of cinematography including light, camera, lens and film stocks, as well as the properties of film and processing chemicals, are covered. Participants will learn to shoot in 16mm with a Bolex Camera, make homemade film processing solutions out of raw chemical ingredients and hand process their own footage using various techniques. This workshop will prepare participants for further explorations of celluloid filmmaking and experimentation with film processing. All materials are provided. No previous experience with 16mm filmmaking is required.

http://mobileframes.org/workshops/

Feb. 13th, 2014 – Introduction to 16mm Filmmaking (Part 1), 1pm – 5pm

Feb. 15th, 2014 – Introduction to 16mm Filmmaking (Part 2), 9am – 6pm

Feb. 16th, 2014 – Introduction to 16mm Filmmaking (Part 3), 1pm – 5pm

Daïchi Saïto is a co-founder of Double Negative, an artist’s collective in Montreal dedicated to exhibition and production of experimental cinema. His films have screened at festivals, museums and cinematheques worldwide and are in the permanent collections of the Austrian Film Museum and the Slovenian Cinematheque, and are distributed by Light Cone (Paris), Arsenal (Berlin) and the CFMDC (Toronto). Saïto has taught cinema at NSCAD University in Halifax, Concordia University in Montreal and the Escuela Internacional De Cine in Cuba.


The series is presented by Media City Film Festival, together with Broken City Lab, Common Ground Art Gallery and Momentum Film & Video Collective and is made possible through the generous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Media City Film Festival acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Zine Night Continues this Summer: Wednesdays Biweekly at Civic Space

Zine Night

Zine Night: A Free Biweekly Micro-Publishing Forum, Open to All!

Zine Night, a biweekly micro-publishing workshop series hosted by BCL’s Rosina Riccardo continues throughout the summer. Join us as we cut, paste, tear, discuss, remove, rethink, reshape, bind, print, and share (in no particular order).


Upcoming Dates

June – 5th & 19th

July – 3rd, 17th, & 31st

@ CIVIC SPACE – 411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario

Regret/Resolve: Exhibition Planning

Yesterday morning Rosina and I went to the Art Gallery of Windsor for the install of BCL’s piece that is going in the Border Cultures: Part One (Homes, Land)  along with some other great artists. The show is opening next week on January 25th.

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We spent the majority of the remainder of day planning for the Regret/Resolve Exhibition that’s happening January 31st at 7:00pm.

_MG_3712(1)Sara, Rosina and myself each took a wall and started pinning the t-shirts in different variations so we could get a sense of what could work in the space.

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Rosina making a second row.

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I decided to go with a more uniform shape, but it seemed to try and “hide” the fact that these were T-shirts.

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Rosina’s more organic approach.

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We almost had a full house which was great for working through our list of to-dos! Kevin, Josh, Sara, Rosina and myself hung out during the day, with Justin joining us at night to add some more input.

Kevin made some great renderings of the space, along with his own creative options of how the exhibition should look.

The most minimalist version.

Another.

Some song lyric manipulations.

We changed our gears and began to focus on the North Bay publication that we have recently begun to work on.

Diligent Joshua and Kevin.

Drawings, printouts, writing, brainstorms.

Rosina takes a stab at a chapter title for the publication: Street Etiquette for Strangers.

Meanwhile at the front of the storefront, Paul Anderson hosted his first Building Electronics Workshop. He had a full house of curious and attentive guests.

Taking notes.

Overall, it was a very fun and productive day!

More soon.

New Workshop Series Starting in January: Building Electronics / Designing Originally

BEDO-POSTER

Starting on January 15, 2013, we’ll be offering a new workshop series for anyone and everyone interested in learning about electronics and  physical computing.

Hosted by Paul Anderson — a man of too many hobbies who holds the advanced qualification for ham radio in Canada, and has been working with electronics on and off since childhood — the workshops will offer a basic introduction to skill sets and then move into building a number of small projects together.

The first workshop will be covering the basic theory. Ohm’s Law, how current flows in a wire, what resistors are, how transistors and diodes work, etc.

With the second workshop, we’ll start playing with the Atari Punk Console circuit. We’ll start with a schematic, and build it using breadboards and experimenting. Eventually we’ll solder them together so they’re ready to be put in a project box.

The workshops are free and open to the public, but registration is required by January 9. Please use the form below to sign up.

We’re also working to get a hold of 10 electronics kits to play with over the course of the workshops — but these will be limited, so register ASAP!


Sorry, registration is currently on hold as we’ve filled up our available spots sooner than we thought! We’re going to see if we can expand them, in the meantime, please get in touch if you’re interested in attending.

Day 2 & 3 at Eastern Edge

The last few days have been so busy here, at Eastern Edge. In anticipation of the 24 hour Art Marathon that is happening today, we have been keeping busy getting the Public Space Gallery installed and running. Here’s a recap.

On Thursday, we held our “Assembling the Public Space Gallery Workshop”. Before the workshop, Josh and I had gone around and photographed all the spaces we wanted to include in the gallery tour. We projected them back at our space at Eastern Edge and discussed them with our workshop participants.

With a fake title card, we tried to imagine how they could fit on the space in order to properly frame each stop on the tour.

Around the table, Kumi and Emmanuelle reference a map to get a sense of the route the tour would take.

Then Josh tries to locate one of the spots. A notable characteristic of St.John’s is how the streets work in the city. Google maps has mad multiple errors in helping us find the places we were searching for. The streets curve and take sharp direction changes without any indication of street signs, making it a challenge and adventure for any newcomer of the city to find their destination.

After the spots were finalized, we set out to buy all the appropriate materials for the task. Rick Page, who is our lovely house host, is also a carpenter and was really kind in finding us some scrap wood to turn into stakes.

Josh tests the stake in the ground.

And it stands!

Next, we got the title cards for the tour printed and began to mount them.

The method: glue all around and super glue for the edges.

A Josh touch.

We have 24 title cards in total, making this tour a 24 stop one.

As mentioned above, Google Maps had a tough time helping us find the places we were looking for and so, the map above is one we collaborated with Google on to find the exact coordinates of the places we wanted to caption in the city.

Before we headed out on our “Installation/Walking Tour Workshop” we tested out a scrap piece of foam board to see how it held up on the stake.

Friday was all about install. We decided it would be interested to take our last workshop to the streets and take the first “official” tour of the Public Space Gallery, but also give the workshop participants the chance to have an input on where the title cards would be installed. So we set off with Caley, an Eastern Edge volunteer, as well as the designated tool assistant on this workshop walk.

First stop on the tour is Eastern Edge. Discussion on where title card should be installed ensues.

First title card up.

Eastern Edge.

Some of the installation spots required a sign to be installed infront of it in order for it to be properly framed. Emmanuelle created a tape handle for easy transport.

Caley follows her lead and makes a handle for the axe.

Second stop on the tour is the view from the harbour of Signal Hill. This place came up in conversation so many times during the workshops and other discussions we’ve had during our stay in St.John’s. It seems to almost be like the beacon of the city.

The view’s not bad either.

Similarly to Signal Hill, the Habour acts as a distinct characteristic of the city, as well as a gateway, both literally and metaphorically in understanding this place a little better.

If you’re here, you’re somewhere.

47.565, -52.705 are the longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates of this exact spot. We decided to include them on the title card as a fun play on the normal gallery artwork measurements.

Stop 4 is a parking garage located on Harbour Drive. What stood out as worth noting of this place is that it was the spot people mentioned when asked where the best view to watch the sunrise/sunset was. Signal Hill was a definite contender but the parking garage made us curious about what spaces are meant to be used for versus what they can or maybe should be used for.

The group consulting.

Another great part of the “Installation Walking Tour” was being able to face the challenges of installing title cards in an urban space that isn’t exactly designed for this type of project. Emmanuelle is an artist from Quebec and is participating in the Art Marathon alongside us. She came on the tour and was really good at problem solving ways of installing the title cards in trickier spots.

Her idea was to make a looping mechanism with the tape so that it can be wrapped around the pole and stand more securely.

 

Google was having a tough time in St.John’s and thought that this tiny shoe boutique was Bay Roberts, which is actually a whole district of its own.

Erin’s Pub is a place of identity for a lot of people in St.John’s. While most visitors and tourists go to George Street for their pub experience, the residents of St.John’s find this pub to be a more accurate representation of their culture and heritage.

As we searched for a good spot to install, a gentleman that worked at the pub asked what we were doing. When we explained to him the project, he told us that we could put it wherever we wanted and that his boss will be happy to see it.

Discussing the spot.

Urchin Art Materials and Papery was another spot Google misread, but still worked for our Recently Changed Collection because this store just opened a month ago.

They gave us rubber suctions to hang our sign and also gave us some for the road. Thanks Urchin!

Susan Shiner was another participant that came with us on the walk but had to leave half way through. Before we parted ways, she pointed out to us that on her shopping bag, it said “changing perspectives”, which she said was what she felt she experienced on our walk. I was really glad to hear that because Susan has lived in St.John’s her whole life and have her say that our walk helped her point out things in the city she had never noticed before made all the work of this project worth it.

Next on our tour was the Rocket Bakery.

While this place may appear to be a normal bakery, we’ve experienced it as a real gathering spot in the city. Some people come here to eat a meal while others stop in on a grocery run. Josh and I had a few meals here and noticed the range of customers from men in business suits having meetings to grandparents taking their grandchildren out for a treat.

Rocket.

Josh marks off the places as we go.

As a part of the Fancy Artist Talks presentation on Wednesday night, a collective known as Noxious Sector discussed the project they were doing in St.John’s called The Haunting of George Street. The premise of the project is pretty playful and funny but stems from their genuine curiosity revolving around ghosts and whether or not you can actually haunt someone or something. While George Street is known as the partying district of St.John’s, it was more interesting to note something happening below the surface that the majority of people on this street didn’t know was happening.

This two block street has the most bar and pubs per square foot of any street in North America.

As we were installing the title card, the members of Noxious Sector showed up on site. Maybe they’re haunting us?

This spot was deemed as a place that is irreplaceable.

Holdsworth Court.

Reading funny posters.

Anna Templeton Centre is keeping the textiles alive.

This building used to be a bank before it was taking over by this centre.

Hiding in one of the alley pathways, The Ship Inn was talked about as the best music venue in town. People from St. John’s are always willing to talk about music, as its the biggest scene out here. The amount of music festivals and shows always going on is quite amazing.

This is a great spot to see where the city and nature meet. Sadly, the infrastructure being built is starting to block the view.

Down on Prescott and Water, the view is really cool.

An onlooker engages with the project.

St.John’s has Jelly Bean houses everywhere. It is definitely one of the first things you notice about the city.

The corner of Prescott and Gower is a great example of the brilliantly playful homes found throughout the city.

The mailboxes too.

The scary storm approaches.

Tucked away in a residential district, the Resource Centre for the Arts is where a lot of the local musicians, dancers, artists and actors spend their days.

Just below the LSPU hall is this staircase that leads to the next street block. These staircases are so common throughout the city because of how steep some of the streets are.

Similarly to most downtowns, parking in St. John’s is hard to come about. Older generations complain about this a lot because it has caused the downtown scenery to change a lot. This used to be a place only ever experienced on foot but has now become an urban center dominated by the automobile. However, one thing that is delightfully different from downtown St.John’s to other cities is how local businesses occupy 95% of the storefronts. All the big box stores are pushed to the outskirts of town, about a 25 minute drive away.

Huge church right in the downtown.

A part of the Where am I? Collection.

There’s a on going joke in St.John’s that because the Basilica and the Rooms are only a few blocks from one another, the Rooms was actually the box the Basilica was delivered in . The Rooms is a massive gallery and museum that over shadows any other architectural structure in the downtown.

After the install at The Rooms, a massive storm swept through and rained us out. While the title cards are fine, we weren’t able to finish our tour in its entirety. With four more spots to visit, we’re heading out this morning before the marathon begins.

More soon.

Day 1 at Eastern Edge

Our first day at Eastern Edge was very eventful and filled with lots of adventures and new discoveries. The main take away from today is that St. Johns, Newfoundland has such a rich history and culture.

The Art Marathon Festival that Eastern Edge annually hosts was already in full swing when we arrived, with local and national artists doing really interesting work all around the city. Everything from performance works to mapping out the city with an intricate stamping systems was happening and we were about to get thrown into this exciting mix with our Public Space Gallery project.

With some of our tools from home, we quickly got to work and began putting together the details for our first workshop.

Josh working in our giving space.

We compiled a list of questions to discuss with the participants that act as entry points to larger questions and discussions that we’re interested in exploring while here.

The goal of the first workshop was to assemble the Public Gallery Collection by discovering the overlooked and under-appreciated parts of St.Johns. Everything from the place that’s most confusing in the city to a place you cannot live without was talked about and the stories shared were fascinating.

On our cab ride from the St.John’s airport to Eastern Edge, we were introduced to Newfoundland’s famous hospitality when our seemingly normal cab ride was turned into a full-fledged tour of the city. The gentlemen driving us down to the gallery was so helpful and excited for us to be visiting that he equipped us with maps, guides, and personally showed us around to all the great spots we need to check out in order to fully understand St.Johns. He even waited to make sure we got into the gallery okay before driving off. Newfoundland hospitality is most definitely not a myth; people here are extremely generous and kind.

The handful of people that showed up for the workshop today were great! They had so many stories to share and really took ownership of the project.

We decided to do a round table discussion of the topics which seemed to pay off. We were able to bounce ideas and experiences off one another, both by locals and visitors.

Discussing.

As the discussions went on, more people became curious and took a seat at the table to give their input.

Jen, an Eastern Edge staff member, referred to a map when trying to remember where a specific site of cultural importance was located.

Josh writes while Charlotte recalls a memory from her childhood.

New topic question.

Around the table.

Josh takes notes and starts to find links.

I switch with Josh to take a stab at the story collecting.

The story wall grows.

By the end of the 2 hour workshop, Josh and I have learnt so many new things about St.Johns, we can’t wait to take to the streets and document all the special nooks and crannies that the participants have shared with us.

The view from outside of Eastern Edge is of Signal Hill. This spot was brought up many different instances during the workshop and will be appearing in our walking tour.

During the workshop, all the places that came up multiple times were compiled into a list and then placed into a google map. It became a preliminary guide for us as we began to walk and photograph these sites.

Above, Josh takes notes on each site.

At every place we visited, we made sure to plot its exact coordinates on our map so that we can transfer them to our walking tour pamphlets.

One of the questions asked during the workshop was, “What is the best place to watch the sunrise/sunset?”, and someone replied by saying on top of this parking garage, so Josh and I went to check it out.

Here’s what we found.

The back of the parking garage shows an interesting view of the downtown area. The topography of this place is pretty awesome.

A screen shot of our map thus far. More soon.

Exploring Urban Ecology with Sam Lefort (a look back at our week of workshops)

It was a quick week, but such an excellent start to our Artist-in-Residence program at CIVIC SPACE. Sam Lefort, bee lover, excellent designer, and most generous workshop host spent the week teaching members of the Windsor-Essex (and beyond) community about a range of sustainably minded practices and interventions, hopefully many of which will be carried on in numerous locations around the region.

We’re already looking forward to bringing Sam back, but in the meantime, here’s a look at the week (and possibly what you missed!)…

Continue reading “Exploring Urban Ecology with Sam Lefort (a look back at our week of workshops)”

Setting Up for the Urban Ecology Workshops

Today, we’re pleased to kick off the first workshop from our first artist-in-residence at CIVIC SPACE! Samantha Lefort will host a series of workshops this week on Urban Ecology — starting today at 3pm with Urban Apiaries (BEES AND YOU, IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE).

Need to know more? Check out more info on Windsor’s CBC Radio’s The Bridge in an interview with Sam!

Sam and Hiba spent the bulk of Monday preparing the space and materials for the workshops.

Some prep for the window installation and urban container gardening workshop.

Box of supplies!

We also put up some signage in the window … translating Sam’s banner graphic into a vinyl cut.

Justin and Sam at work.

Can’t wait to see all of this come together.

Sam’s to-do list on some ledger sheets she found in an attic in Philadelphia.

Bundles of bamboo.

Hiba prepping the vinyl transfer tape.

The cut turned out well — and white looks great on the windows.

I think we’ll be changing our other graphics to white as well.

Free workshops all week on making our city a more livable place! Check out the details here:
http://civicspace.info/programming/urban-ecology-workshops/

Also, we’re still looking for some moss for Thursday night’s workshop– anyone have any leads?

Urban Ecology Workshops at CIVIC SPACE with Sam Lefort

We’re really excited to announce our first Artist-in-Residence at CIVIC SPACESamantha Lefort with the Urban Ecology Project! Evolved from a love of design, urban environments, and creative projects – The Urban Ecology Project is the interjection of ecology and new life into an urban space. It kicks off on Tuesday, July 24 for a week of workshops.

Urban Apiaries, Tuesday July 24 @ 3pm 
BEES AND YOU, IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE

Did you know 1 in every 3 bites of food are thanks to the pollination of bees? It’s true! Come and explore bee culture and honey culture in the urban landscape. Taste some honey and make a wild bee hive!

Urban Container, Tuesday July 24 @ 7pm  
Gardening 101 GET DIRTY.
Add some edibles to your landscape! One of the best and most efficient gardening methods, container gardening is great for any space!

Cycling Charette, Wednesday July 25 @ 7pm
A-ROUND ABOUT
In traditional design charette style, participants will be presented with an opportunity in the local community to see new possibilities and spark an invigoration of underutilized space – via bicycle. Exploring urban place by bicycle – acting as flaneur about the city, noticing, seeing, creating an urban narrative for NEW possibilities in the spaces we seldom see.

Moss Graffiti, Thursday July 26 @ 7pm
GET IT GROWIN’ ON

Learn how to make unique and intricate moss graffiti to add a little green to your City! All natural and chemical free, these beautiful living art pieces thrive on their own after application.All workshops are ALL AGES and FREE!! Any questions? Let us know.

SPACE IS LIMITED, please contact us to register in advance!

Here’s the entire set of lovely posters Samantha designed!

Save the City: an overview

The Save the City project aims to create a concentrated series of positive community-based activities facilitated by Broken City Lab in collaboration with community members. The project will address a number of issues and ideas specific to Windsor, Ontario through various collaborative community-based activities. As Windsor is situated in precarious economic, cultural, and geographic positions, the Save the City project will serve as a much needed injection of positive collaboration, engagement, and dialogue with the city itself and its diverse communities.

The objectives of the Save the City project are to prompt and initiate creative solutions for social change within Windsor through direct connections between emerging artists and community members. Save the City will focus on the process of creative and artistic practice extending into the community and the everyday, selecting and inviting a range of collaborators and participants from within the many communities of the City of Windsor.

The Save the City project will bring together emerging artists and city residents to imagine and prompt creative social engagements and civic activation. Within the project’s series of five activities, the content of each activity will be based on a creative interaction with a part of Windsor’s current and historical social, economic, and regional culture.

Below is the schedule of events (with some details still to be announced):

January 24, 2010 – Listen to the City : Community storytelling workshop to brainstorm, uncover, and share your personal histories of Windsor  (Phog Lounge, 157 University Ave W, 8PM)

February 28, 2010 – Sites of Apology / Sites of Hope : Social Mapping event of the places we need to apologize for and the place we need to care about (362 California Ave, 1PM)

March – Sing to the Streets : A celebratory parade of French history, singing French Folk songs to French Streets (meet at Pelissier and University)

April – Things Worth Saving : Help us to document the thousands of things worth saving in this city, we’ll turn them into free postcards to send out to other cities (362 California Ave)

May – How to Save a City : Community think tank / artist talk / open forum, asking how in the world do you save a place like Windsor (TBA)

Broken City Lab: Save the City is generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council.