I Never Grew out of Liking Tree Houses

Here is an interesting alternative to a conventional patio; all it needs is a barbecue. Who else would want to hang out in this tree house during the summer months? Unfortunately I can’t find the source of this image, but it was found on Inhabitat. I’m pretty psyched to work on our upcoming wooden letters by the way!

Last Meeting for 2009!

IMG_7289

Monday night marked the last Broken City Lab meeting of the year!!! We’ll be taking a brief break over the holidays and then gearing up for a series of events starting at the end of January.

For anyone who has been wondering how to get involved or if we’d ever hold open office hours again, stay tuned, there’s going to be a lot of things to do in the new year!

As per usual, we spent some time just trying to sort out our upcoming schedules, planning for a performance at Propeller Gallery in January, and talking about the many details we need to get started on for the Broken City Lab: Save the City project.

Continue reading “Last Meeting for 2009!”

Tree Museum: Public Art by Katie Holten

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL4LqJXur48&feature=player_embedded

Kind of strangely, I read about this project in the New Yorker and momentarily confused it with Canada’s Tree Museum, but ultimately thought it was worth noting given a recent conversation we had with Edwin who came by our Office Hours last week about a potential audio-based community project.

The video above describing the Holten’s project is kind of brutal (especially the soundtrack), but it gives a good idea of the way it works—acting as a kind of series of stops on a museum tour, with a variety of trees being the markers in each neighbourhood.

100 trees give voice to 100 perspectives featured in the Grand Concourse’s TREE MUSEUM. Irish artist Katie Holten created this public art project to celebrate the communities and ecosystems along this 100 year-old boulevard. Visitors can listen in on local stories and the intimate lives of trees offered by current and former residents: from beekeepers to rappers, historians to gardeners, school kids to scientists.

You can call 718-408-2501to access the audio guide.

David Blatherwick’s Talking Trees

David Blatherwick's Talking Trees

David Blatherwick‘s Talking Trees was recently installed as part of the Green Corridor’s Open Corridor Festival. A small number of trees along Huron Church, south of College Ave are equipped with outdoor speakers that loop audio of children complaining. Josh played a big part in realizing this project, as he was one of the almost 60 students to take the Green Corridor class during intersession, so if I’m missing any details, I’m sure he’ll fill in the blanks.

Blatherwick, a former member of the Visual Arts faculty at the University of Windsor (he’s now at Waterloo), suggests that these trees have a lot to complain about, being alongside the road that still carries around 10,000 trucks daily to the Ambassador Bridge.

The speakers are loud enough that you can catch bits of it while driving by, but it’s worth a walk-thru to experience not just Talking Trees, but the other works that are part of Open Corridor.

I’ll be posting more on the other works in the coming days.