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Hektor, the Spray-Paint Output Device

I was looking through the book, Design and the Elastic Mind, which accompanied the eponymous exhibit, and came across Hektor. I had seen this somewhere before, or something like it anyways, on my Internet travels, but glad I was reminded of it, as it is surely worth a post. 

Hektor is a simple 2-motor controlled plotter that has toothed belts and a can holder that handles regular spray cans. By programming a graphic in Illustrator using the Scriptographer plugin, you can have Hektor output nearly anything. It was created in close collaboration with engineer Uli Franke for Jürg Lehni’s diploma project at écal (école cantonale d’art de Lausanne) in 2002.

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2009 Strategic Plan

Planning out the next year's worth of repairs for this broken city

We spent last night sketching out all of the repairs we could think of for the coming year (a Broken City Lab strategic plan of sorts). It took a couple of hours, 15 markers, and about 30 square feet of paper (see the whole image), but we came up with some very exciting ideas. Among them:

Broken City Symposium, Leddy Microfiche Exhibition, (Gallery) Slumber Parties, Parking Garage Rooftop Screenings,Telephone Pole Suggestion Boxes, Handcrafted “Parking Tickets”, Small-Scale Exhibitions in Cars, A Parade

We’ll have office hours again in the new year. In the meantime, we’re working on LED signs and Ice Block texts (more soon).

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Untitled Sign No. 2

Untitled Sign No 2 by Kasper Sonne

This building vaguely reminded me of something on the University of Windsor campus…  this could be somewhere near Leddy library or Essex Hall. It’s actually part of the Tempo Skien Annual Temporary Outdoor Exhibition, in Norway.

The work is by Kasper Sonne, who regularly works with text in his gallery and public work.

If the University of Windsor was really smart, they would get that awful yellow sign down from atop of the residence building so readily legible from the Ambassador Bridge and make that space an annual international public art competition. They could attract artists from across the world to make work that could be seen by an international audience every single day.

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Office Hours

Windsor is Lame, Then Go to Detroit - text found on desk in leddy library

We’re holding Office Hours on Tuesday, December 16th, at 7pm, LeBel, room 125. Feel free to drop by to contribute, engage, ask questions, and fix this city. We’ll be discussing upcoming projects, ongoing research, and planning out a year’s worth of repairs. These will likely be the last Broken City Lab office hours for 2008.

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Learning Electricity

trying to figure out how much resistance 200 10mm LEDs might need

Spent last night around the table with my brother, the high school physics teacher, trying to figure out how one might calculate the resistors and type of battery that would be needed in a circuit powering 200 LEDs.

I know there are some calculators online, as Mike had suggested earlier, but because I really don’t know the first thing about electricity, I think I was probably confusing the problem… as well, our Internet connection was down, so we were googless. However, as you can see above, we eventually came out with the right number.

Then I found this formula earlier tonight… 
(SupplyVoltage – LEDForwardVoltage)/ NominalLEDCurrent = ResitorValue

Then I ordered a whole bunch of 270 ohm resistors and a 9v wallwart from Jameco to hopefully get these LED projects moving forward.

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Guelph Rainwater Research

Rainwater Harvesting Diagram

This concept may not be overly fitting for Windsor’s current financial hardship in terms of unit costs, but rainwater harvesting units could prove to be very cost-effective in the long-run.

Research has and is being done at the University of Guelph to produce a successful rainwater harvesting system. The system was designed by two engineering graduate students in collaboration with a local supplier of rainwater harvesting technology.

According to University of Guelph, the harvesting process goes like this: “Rainwater that lands on the home’s fiberglass roof will be collected in roof gutters and downspouts and diverted to a filtration device before it is carried to a 6,500 litre underground cistern. The stored water will be pressurized and piped into the home to supply water to three toilets, the washing machine, and the dishwasher. The collected rainwater will also supply water to an underground irrigation system. This would account for over 50% of water consumption in a typical home.”

I was unable to find photos of the U of Guelph version of this project, but did find some diagrams which visually explain the process quite well.

[Article]

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Moss Wall

Olafur Eliasson's Moss Wall, living arctic moss installed in a gallery

I’d been meaning to scan this for a while, Olafur Eliasson‘s Moss Wall, which consists of living arctic moss. While we’ve posted about pictorial or textual uses of moss before, I like that this work was done in 1994 and exists as just a large span of green. So, in thinking about our past interest in relocating moss, and my anticipation that we’ll want to think about this more when spring comes around, I wanted to get this posted as a reference for later.

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Interview on CJAM

interview with Tom on Not In My Back Yard on CJAM 91.5fm

[audio:CJAM-Interview-Dec9-2008.mp3]

I was interviewed yesterday about Broken City Lab on CJAM 91.5fm’s Not In My Back Yard, hosted by Adam Fox and Tom Lucier. I didn’t get a chance to post this before the interview actually happened, but thankfully CJAM offers MP3 archives on their site.

You can hear the excerpt of the show with Tom’s and my conversation above. If you want to hear the entirety of the show, which I can highly recommend, you can download the episode from this week. NIMBY airs every Tuesday at noon on 91.5fm in Windsor.

Also, check out Tom’s blog, where he posted the interview, and bonus footage of a couple videos of the interview and some of the extra conversation we had.

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Ghost Shoes

Ghost Shoes

I found this little gem while aimlessly seaching instructables for a good recipe for General Tao’s tofu.

“Shoefiti” is a necessary element of any urban space. They are of particular interest to me due to the various myths and truths surrounding them, be it an informal murder memorial, a drug users annotation, or the hijinks of a common ruffian. When we seem them, we attach our preconcieved purpose (in my experience, this purpose was birthed out of schoolyard lore) as we walk by allowing that ephmeral space to feel differently than the space that came before it and after.

Creating an ethereal version, speaks to the magic surrounding this urban act.

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