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OPEN: Discussing Financial Precarity and Alternative Economies

OPEN: Discussing Financial Precarity and Alternative Economies

Featuring a panel discussion with Professor Jeff Noonan and members of Broken City Lab, with an art installation by Michael DiRisio.

Questions such as what caused the global recession and how can we effect change will be asked in an open format, with an emphasis on collaborative thought and horizontal discussion. An exhibition of installation and video work by University of Windsor MFA candidate Michael DiRisio, who will be moderating, will provide a greater context for the talk.

The event is free and open to the public, and there will be refreshments.

Thursday Nov. 1, 7 p.m.
Mackenzie Hall, Main Gallery
3277 Sandwich Street, Windsor

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Open Studio – Civic Boredom: Street Remedies

Mark your calendars for Friday, October 26th at 7pm for an open studio of our artist-in-residence, Sam Lefort. You’ll remember Sam from earlier in the summer when she hosted a rapid fire series of workshops on urban ecology at CIVIC SPACE. She’ll be presenting a new project realized over the course of her residency in collaboration with students from J.L. Forster Secondary School. You’ll have a chance to meet Sam and the students!

The project, CIVIC BOREDOM: STREET REMEDIES,  features a series of temporary street art stencils installed around the city. Working through a series of workshops with Sam, the students created powerful text-based visual statements that will get residents and visitors starting to think about issues impacting youth.

Using custom card stock stencils and environmentally friendly, hand-made chalk paint (corn starch and water), students made their marks (temporarily) around downtown Windsor to try to bring some attention to their hopes and concerns for their futures and the future of the city.

Here are just a few of the installations around the city. LESS TALKING MORE DOING.

I WISH YOU COULD SEE THE POTENTIAL.

OUR FUTURE.

THEY JUST KEEP FIGHTNIG (sic).

See you Friday!

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Interactive Window Installation, progressing beyond the Max/MSP solution

After our post a few weeks ago about a new interactive window installation, we had some interesting and helpful suggestions, but one email in particular stood out.

Paul Anderson wrote to us briefly with an offer to help and after a quick introduction of his incredible depth of knowledge of all things electronic shortly thereafter, he showed up yesterday with the sensor pictured above. Basically, it’s used for industrial automation and I can’t recall the name of it, but see that red light, that’s the important part.

Pictured above, Paul is holding up this device to the window on the inside of CIVIC SPACE and our artist-in-residence, Sam Lefort, places her hand on the window from outside, and that little light turns from green to red. I can’t recall exactly what it’s detecting (I’m hoping Paul can fill in some blanks in the comments), but essentially by dialing in the right sensitivity, you can get this thing to act as a trigger when someone’s hand is in front of it through the window. This gets us past trying to use computer vision in Max to detect the presence of a hand, which would have run into some challenges dealing with the range of lighting conditions we deal with at the window (pictured below).

Still assuming that  we’ll use Max to record the audio (as Stephen had suggested in the comments) and add some other useful automation like date/time, possibly some early EQ or amplification, and maybe even setting this thing up so it will tweet us when it’s recording and automatically upload it to our servers, or maybe something else entirely.

Anyways, I’m confident in saying that I’ve never been so excited to see a little red light turn on.

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Last Week & Tonight: All Tomorrow’s Problems

Last Monday night,  a small group of us gathered around the table to talk about All Tomorrow’s Problems. This is an open event that invites anyone to attend and think of this as a very loosely organized group to discuss and exercise your ideas on a specific topic. We may not actually make anything, but we will aim to creatively respond to the issue at hand. It picks up again tonight, Monday, October 15 at 7pm!

Huge thanks to Sam Lefort, Eric Boucher and Dan McCafferty for joining me and Danielle. The goal of this biweekly design night is to articulate and imagine the problems and solutions facing the city in a longer horizon, and which have already begun to reveal themselves.

The topic of the first-week: youth retention. It’s not a secret that this has been an area of ongoing concern for me, personally, and so it was great to talk through ideas of how we could address this problem, without them being tethered to the all-too-familiar limits and and realities regularly articulated in the community.

Some of the notes from the evening … I particularly liked the idea of making it easier for people to find their place in the community here, rather than assuming their place is waiting for them somewhere else. The big question framing the entire discussion — what are the barriers in place that prevent recent graduates from staying here?

Also discussed — more focus on mentorship, a guerilla marketing campaign for parents to “talk to their kids about Windsor,” a head-hunter for every single graduate, an effort to more coherently articulate the local, and a completely revamped set of bylaws to jumpstart entrepreneurship here that doesn’t look like entrepreneurship in other cities and places.

All Tomorrow’s Problems isn’t aiming to necessarily solve the problems we discuss, but instead, open up an imaginative dialogue around these issues. Solving problems is over-rated anyways, asking the right questions is so much more important. Around the table on the first night, we had artists, designers, filmmakers, teachers, and a soon-to-be lawyer. In my mind, that’s a dangerously good combination of people asking a variety of questions. But, I’m also pretty sure that having you around the table would make it even better.

We’re not dismissing or avoiding actionable ideas, we just don’t want to get caught up in the limits of logistics and pragmatism — the city already seems to do that really well. See you tonight at 7pm.

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Help Wanted: Ad-hoc volunteer studio assistant

We’re looking for an ad-hoc volunteer studio assistant to help us do some or all of the following:

-Visual and archival research
-Building and making things
-Silk screening
-Scanning and archiving
-Basic print and/or web design
-Materials research
-General office assistance
-Installation assistance

In return for your one or two day a week time commitment, we offer the following:

-Fun and free coffee
-Experience in a professional artist-run-centre and collective
-An eclectic mix of background music including jazz, hip hop, and metalcore
-Dangerously good reference letters
-Invaluable learning opportunities that will help you make more art, be an incredibly good organizer, and maybe even get you into grad school

Preferred Qualifications:

-High school diploma, first-year University/College, or otherwise very mature
-Incredibly punctual
-Drivers license and access to a vehicle
-General care and attention to detail
-Very positive and helpful attitude
-Focused
-Self-directed
-Well organized
-Experience with power tools and/or Adobe Creative Suite

Start Date: As soon as possible
End Date: End of April 2013 (with possible contract renewal)

Interested? Please fill out the form below, ASAP!

[gravityform id=”11″ name=”Studio Assistant” ajax=”true”]

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No Rights/No Wrongs: Nuit Blanche 2012

On September 29th 2012, we were lucky enough to be invited to Toronto for Nuit Blanche! Our installation site was on the face of the Gladstone Hotel right on Queen Street West. It was an amazing night.

It was the first time that we did a projection on a building so textured. This definitely allowed for some challenges in terms of how the text would look on a building surface that wasn’t flat and the result was pretty interesting.

Text in transition.

The combination of statements make up our “No Rights/No Wrongs” projection series. The texts are based off of back and forth conversations about opposing sides to an argument or statement, as well as some that are left for the viewer to fill in themselves.

Fill in the blank.

The projector and computer were set up inside my car.

The projector was set up just below my dash, and the projection shot right through the windshield, onto the Gladstone Hotel.

START WITHOUT AN END.

Joshua talking to some onlookers.

We’d like to say thank you to everyone at the Gladstone and in particular, Noa Bronstein,  for having us be a part of a great night!

 

 

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FEAST with Sam Lefort on Friday, October 5th at 7pm

You’re invited to a FEAST this Friday, October 5th at 7pm at CIVIC SPACE hosted by our Artist-in-Residence, Sam Lefort. This free dinner event kicks off her month-long residency and her return after an incredible week of workshops earlier this summer.

The Feast Worldwide dinner party for good takes place on the final day of The Feast Conference, October 5. Pick a challenge, host a dinner, and by the end of your meal, kick-off a project to make the world better. The evening will include:

– A real-time world map of all the dinners taking place from Auckland to Dubai
– Official Challenges—Poverty Challenge presented by Mark Bezos of Robin Hood, Health Challenge presented by Arcade Fire on behalf of Partners in Health and more!
– Dedicated dinner pages to interact with other guests via Twitter
– A huge bank of resources to help make your ideas happen

Learn more at worldwide.feastongood.com

Please RSVP on Twitter @s_lefort or contact@samanthalefort.com.

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The Weekend Here and Around the Province

It’s a busy weekend all over the place with an opening and a new project, culture days, and some great events hosted by dear friends of ours here in Windsor. Here’s the breakdown of what you might want to check out this weekend:

We’re back to North Bay for our opening of Surviving North Bay at White Water Gallery. After concluding our research micro-residency this past summer we returned to Windsor to brainstorm ways to address the concerns that residents of North Bay brought up about the city. The result: a series of survival kits designed to help North Bay face whatever the future the city has in store. Each red plastic kit contains useful and unique items to artfully solve local problems, and can be found on display in the Gallery for the next six weeks. There will be an opening reception on Friday at 7 pm.

In Toronto at Nuit Blanche on Saturday, we’ll be at the Gladstone for a new projection-based work – No Rights / No Wrongs, which will aim to highlight and articulate a series of indecisive statements on ideas of civic responsibility, community development, and political participation through large-scale projections on the side of the Gladstone.

 

Artcite Members and Friends!
Join Us this FRIDAY NIGHT, all Night @ THE LOOP
September 28, 2012 – 156 Chatham St. West (upper), Windsor, ON N9A 4M3

SHIRK  –  a DJ Night benefit for Artcite with DJs Sthephen Pender, Martin (Zonk) Deck, Matthew Hawtin and special guests

This Friday, 28 September, in the midst of Windsor’s Culture Days events, the Loop on Chatham Street is hosting a fundraiser for Artcite,
an event that kicks off our 30th anniversary celebrations. There will be three or four dj-s, including Martin ‘Zonk’ Deck, Matthew Hawtin, and Stephen Pender, plus a surpise guest or two.

The suggested donation is $4 at the door, which is deposited straight into Artcite’s coffers, and garners you a night of dub, techno, soul, Detroit funk, all good things.

Please spread the word, and support local artist-run culture.
Newest info here or on the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/350784671680498

Art and Ecology Sidewalk Parade


12:00 – 3:00 on Saturday, September 29, 2012
parade route begins @ ACWR 1942 Wyandotte Street E. Windsor, ON

The Art and Ecology Sidewalk parade is a performance artwork lead by Dr. Jennifer Willet of the School for Arts and Creative Innovation. The parade will draw community members into discussion about art and ecology in the Windsor Area with all participants collaborating in the production of a whimsical spectacle involving music and rhythm (10 block walk in total). The event will commence at the Arts Council of Windsor & Region (ACWR) and conclude the Canada South Science City on Marion Street in Windsor, ON.

Join them – rain or shine
for more info about bioart research and other initiatives at uwindsor: www.incubatorartlab.com

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All Tomorrow’s Problems: the Biweekly Design Night for Future-Focused People

Starting on October 1st at 7pm, we’ll be running biweekly Design Nights focused on creative problem solving All Tomorrow’s Problems. Namely, we’re going to kick things off looking at the issues of youth retention in the city and gradually move on to other future-focused issues.

BCL’s Research Director, Justin, and a rotating co-host will guide the 2-hour studio, which will involve walks, discussions, rapid prototyping and wrap up with an exhibition in December.

Everyone is welcome, though space is limited. Please note that you should bring the following:

  • sketchbook, camera, laptop, drawing tools
  • an open mind and willingness to have productive conversations
  • an appreciation that this isn’t about problem-solving so much as an exercise in utopian-minded praxis

The dates to mark in your calendars:

  • Mondays in October: 1st, 15th, 29th at 7pm-9pm
  • Mondays in November: 12th, 26th at 7pm-9pm
  • Mondays in December: 10th at 7pm-9pm

And, to close, some quick answers to questions that may arise:

You know that the name of this is really similar to All Tomorrow’s Parties, right?

Yes, absolutely. We appreciate the tone of that event and thought it was a nice way to reference doing things at a different scale.

Do I have to be prepared to make art or design anything?

Think of this as a very loosely organized place to discuss and exercise your ideas on a specific topic. We may not actually make anything, but we will aim to creatively respond to the issue at hand.

Do I have to commit to attending every design night?

We hope that you’ll be able to attend as many of these nights as possible, but we understand schedules change. Come when you can. We’ll be trying to accommodate as many people as we can.

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Any Max Experts out there? Slow steps towards a new interactive project

Don’t mind the mess. A lot of the stuff on there is really just old ideas still scattered. These are early stages in using Max to try to figure out how to trigger some audio recording with some basic video tracking, and we’re not sure exactly how best to move forward.

This is a new project we’ve been trying to get off the ground for the window at CIVIC SPACE, but it’s slow going. Essentially, we want to use the window as a big microphone area where passersby can answer questions we ask on the future of Windsor. The questions will appear in vinyl in the window itself, but we want the interface to be buttonless. Basically, when you put your hand on the window in a designated area, it will start recording your answer and keep recording for as long as you keep your hand there. Technically, that mic will be located somewhere below the window and facing up. Sound tests so far have proven that sound quality to be very useable. While we originally wanted to try to work with contact mics to keep all the gear inside and away from the weather, the process of trying to test that has been too arduous. Instead, we’ve found a workable solution to store the small web cam and mic outdoors (yet covered) with a workable stable location looking up to the passerby, but we’re still working away to solve a couple of problems:

1. We need to test more to find the right thing to track to trigger the video. Because the installation would be up around the clock, we need to find the right place on the window and possibly an augmented lighting situation so that the cv.jit.moments object can keep track of what it’s looking for with more acuracy. So far, we can dial in the right numbers for a daylight and nighttime situation, but nothing that can do both — mostly because of the glare on the window during the day.

2. We still have to write the audio recording section. I’ve put together the basic skeleton in another patch, but essentially, we need that big black toggle box with the green X in it to automatically start a recording and then turn off again when it toggles off. That recording would be automatically saved to disk with the current date/time.

Would be happy to hear how you’d solve the problem below in the comments. We had wanted to have this up and running this month, but we’re already halfway through, so unless we can solve this soon, we might push it back to December.