Blog – Page 24 – Broken City Lab

January 8, 2013July 5, 2018

1W3KND: Amber Ginsburg & Siobhan Rigg

Another weekend gone, which means Civic Space hosted another two great 1W3KND collaborators: Amber Ginsberg and Siobhan Rigg.

Not only did they leave us with another great chapter to add to the final publication, but also left some very animated mind-maps.

Amber and Siobhan have been collaborating for many years virally but their participation in the 1W3KND residency was the first time they were able to collaborate in the same physical space! It’s very cool to have been able to provide a place for them to do so.

More brainstorming.

Mundane acts/put this here.

Here’s a preview of the writing Amber and Siobhan did.

The drawings Siobhan and Amber made are their preliminary sketches and ideas. The finished product will come when the final 1W3KND publication is made.

Next week artist collective VSVSVS will be heading down from Toronto to spend the weekend collaborating with London based artist Julian Majewski.

More soon!

January 7, 2013July 5, 2018

Call for Participation: Regret & Resolve

With the start of the new year, we wanted to take stock of the regrets we have about the city or our roles within it, and the resolutions we might make to change this place for the better.

We want to ask two questions: What are the things that we know we should be doing, or wished we would do, or find ourselves scared to do, but never get around to actually doing? How can we take responsibility or ownership over our actions, or lack thereof, and find a way to be honest with where we should go next?

We’re wondering what citizenship looks like in a city like Windsor, and how we might be able to publicly and honestly articulate it.

Regret & Resolve is a new project where we’ll be turning a series of resolutions and regrets into t-shirts. We’ll take online submissions from residents of Windsor and create a limited edition series of 50 shirts. Each selected submission will be made into two shirts — one for the author and one for our gallery exhibition. We’ll release all the shirts on the same night (January 31st) with an exhibition and exchange at Civic Space that will be open to the public.

We want these shirts to capture a moment of tension and hope in the city as we know it today and hope for it to be tomorrow. We feel like there may not be a venue to collectively articulate the responsibilities shared across this city, and that a t-shirt might be a good place to start. Printing these regrets and resolutions on t-shirts allows for a distributed conversation, a series of positions that we might take at the beginning of a new year, and a way to publicly talk about what we’ll do next. We’re really interested in an honest assessment of the things gone wrong, and the ways in which we might commit to righting them.

Interested? Fill out an online form between January 7-25, 2013 with your statement of regret or resolution. We’ll select 50 submissions and print them for the opening at Civic Space on January 31st from 7-9pm.

Submissions are now closed, see you on January 31 at 7pm!

January 4, 2013July 5, 2018

A 1W3KND Update

We’re almost halfway through the 1W3KND Writing Residencies and the pile of writing is growing! Here’s an update on the last four residents.

Mike DiRisio and Nathan Stevens collaborated through the weekend and left us with an awesome collection of notes, brainstorms, fun posters, and essays. Above: one of their posters.

Another great surprise: a series of back and fourth anonymous letters.

Please create responsibly.

Some more notes.

As the residency goes on, I’ve found that there’s something really interesting about coming in to work on Mondays and finding cues of an activated space from the weekend passed.

A more light-hearted piece: “8 Commonly-held Myths, Misconceptions, and Erroneous Ideas about Socially Engaged Creative Practice”.

Letters among collaborators.

More notes!

Before the holiday break, 1W3KND residents Jason Deary and Mary Tremonte spent the weekend collaborating on a set of essays.

Reflections.

The collection of work has been really great so far and we’re excited to see how the residency will progress.

This weekend Siobhan Rigg and Amber Ginsburg will be the writing residents. Can’t wait to see what they come up with!!

January 3, 2013July 5, 2018

Scattered Notes from the end of the year

The holidays flew by, but here’s a quick look at how we spent part of it — amazingly, we almost all got together at one point or another. It’s been way too long! Right before everyone arrived home, Hiba reviews the t-shirt project … already changed again from the image above.

Rosina and Hiba took another look at the t-shirt phrasing, while simultaneously pulling together a small window installation.

Also, we made our first full-size work from the drafts we did a few weeks back.

We can’t wait to do some more of these! Above, Hiba lays the vinyl over the black background.

Bunting installation at the window.

Holidays.

Call to resolve, made with our little bunting app.

Call to resolve: Participate and Be Patient.

You saw our bunting app, right? This was a first draft of the little graphic.

Also, working on the installation for an upcoming show. Hardware.

Then, the holiday party!

Then, back to the studio, working on hardware for the hearts.

Michelle and Sara.

Karlyn, back from the west, and Hiba.

Josh Babcock + JB Weld.

Michelle’s adventures at the hardware store.

New vinyl.

Planning.

Hardware assembly.

It failed, the first time.

Second try, with acrylic.

The gap.

Scars.

Notes for a form. We’re finalizing things for this t-shirt project. You’re going to participate, right?!

January 3, 2013July 5, 2018

Job Posting: Program Coordinator for Neighbourhood Artists in Residence Program

We’ll have a lot more news (and a call for submissions) on this new neighbourhood artist-in-residence program soon, but in the meantime, there’s a job posting for a position to help make this happen. It’s a part-time position to support what is sure to be an amazingly fun project, and the bonus is, you’ll get to hang out with us! More info below…

Arts Council Windsor and Region (ACWR) is seeking a Part-Time Program Coordinator (Neighbourhood Artists in Residence)

DEADLINE: JANUARY 22 2013 via email applications@acwr.net

GENERAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Under the supervision of the ACWR Executive Director, the Program Coordinator is responsible through a two year contract to develop, manage and facilitate a 12 month Artist in Residence program located throughout Windsor & Essex County which will bring contemporary art to the community in non-traditional spaces in non-traditional ways.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Artist-in-Residence programs exist to invite artists, performers, musicians, curators, and all manner of creative people for a time and space away from their usual environment. Art residencies emphasize the importance of meaningful and multi-layered cultural exchange and immersion into another culture or place. The Windsor Essex Artist in Residence program will locate 10 chosen artists from across Canada and beyond into neighborhood community spaces throughout Windsor and Essex County. These community hubs will provide a productive “home base” for the artists and a compelling injection of culture into the surrounding neighborhood. Beyond artists working in the community spaces, they will also engage with the community stakeholders and user groups to animate, explore and inspire the specific stories, curiosities, challenges and triumphs of the local community. The program will span two years, with six months preparation, 12 months of residences, and six months of wrap up and reporting. A final exhibition and symposium will be held after the residencies are completed. An online publication will be created documenting the program.

This program is a collaborative partnership between the Arts Council – Windsor & Region, Broken City Lab and The City of Windsor (“the Collaborative”).

More information here: http://acwr.net/news/acwr-seeks-part-time-program-coordinator/

This program and position is made possible through the generous financial support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

December 29, 2012July 5, 2018

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

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.

December 19, 2012July 5, 2018

Micro-Project: Make Your Own Bunting (Web App)

Whether making your own guerrilla celebration, working on a gallery installation, or even getting ready for some upcoming holiday festivities, we think our little automagic bunting app will make everything a little bit easier.

We got tired of hand-setting each letter when we’ve made bunting in the past, so we cooked up this simple little web app that takes any string of text you enter and converts each letter into a one-page gif file, ready to be printed, trimmed (using the handy built-in guides), and strung together using your favourite little bull clips, tape, or other hanging mechanism.

Try it out and send us a picture of what you do with it!

December 14, 2012July 5, 2018

Civic Space Studio Digest for December 13: on t-shirts and white walls

A look at our little corner of Civic Space. This is where we’ve been spending the majority of our time lately. For the record, the high shelves (those really nice ones with the Letter Library letters on them) were installed by Kiki. The lower shelves were hacked together by me. They’re very shoddy, but they hold many things.

As we’ve been hosting our 1W3KND Residencies, I love coming in on Monday and seeing the little re-arrangements made. Last weekend (I think) the coffee maker and tea kettle got a new home.

Hiba was away, so I got together the little instruction set for the writers in residence and put it back in the big red 1W3KND case.

Meanwhile, Laura took on the task of repainting the walls. After two great exhibitions from Catie Newell’s class and the Green Corridor, the walls were in need of some repairs and touch ups.

One can of paint got us about 80% through. One wall left, will have to pick this up on Monday.

After painting, we spent the afternoon doing some more tests for this t-shirt project. The mangled shirt above features a number of test-sites of vinyl with various temperatures and times on the heat press.

But, before we could do more tests, we had to go back to the drawing board and get a better sense of the size of the potential texts.

We also played with a highlighter look instead of just straight text.

Our new weeding tools makes the vinyl cut process a lot faster.

Remember, cut in reverse for t-shirt vinyl!

Laura weeds.

Then, we place the design…

… and head to the press.

Laura is the master of this machine. I actually don’t even know how to make it do anything aside from plugging it in.

Laura picked up with the same time / temperature settings that we left off with before.

The vinyl seemed to go on no problem, but I think the temperature was still a bit hot, as it left a faint mark where the press hit the shirt.

We also played around with some ideas for the online forms that we’ll eventually make for this project.

Above, the blue shirt on the wall.

Detail of the vinyl.

For the sake of true comparison, we also cut the same text in standard Helvetica bold. We also set the temperature a bit lower in hopes of avoiding the marks from the press.

We’re pretty sure this looks better. I think we had discussed grey shirts before, we’ll see…

We ended the day doing some more comparisons. I’m going to wash the shirts and make sure that the temperature / time changes don’t effect the vinyl adhesion. More soon.

December 12, 2012July 5, 2018

Skills For Good(s): Yummy Tortillas And Fun Skill Share

Last night, Arturo Herrera hosted The Tortillas Workshop for the bi-weekly Skills For Good(s) at Civic Space.

Traditional style corn tortillas is what was on the menu for the night. Most important ingredient: corn masa flour.

Arturo grew up in Honduras as a child and loved the tradition and culture his South American hometown provided him as a child. So, he decided to bring some of that culture and tradition to Civic Space.