Interesting to see some new work up downtown by Denial, definitely brightens up this wall and demonstrates some potential modes to work with the many boarded up windows throughout the city.
[via Photo404]
Salvation Army Window Covers
Text in Knitted Tags
At last night’s Media City screening, I ran into Samantha and Laura whose schedules unfortunately hadn’t been able to align with BCL’s Office Hours in the last couple of weeks. I asked about their progress with their yarn bombs, which have been installed in numerous locations in downtown Windsor, and are gradually covering the entirety of the bike racks outside of Phog.
I wondered about the potential of adding text to the tags, which could lead to a really large intervention / eventual collection of handmade scarves.
This could be an amazing project! Sam already posted her efforts from last night on her blog, and the results are really encouraging!!! I think this could be one of our next summer projects.
Temporary Downtown Space for BCL
For the month of June, Broken City Lab will have access to 406 Pelissier (pictured above) in downtown Windsor, thanks to Julie Sando and Leesa Bringas who are teaching the Contemporary Visual Culture class during Intersession at the University of Windsor.
We’re still just starting to plan what we might do in the space, but we’re thinking of running a type of consultancy for the month. Details to follow.
Bike Rack Sculptures
With the recent addition of new bike racks in downtown Windsor, which I’m happy to see, and with the recent addition to some of those racks with some yarn bombs, downtown feels a bit more like a place, rather than just an any-space-whatever.
I’m also aware though, that Tecumseh has had an ongoing bike rack design competition, which has obviously been successful elsewhere. Above, there’s a photo from a recent installation of a bike rack sculpture in the Parkdale area of Toronto. With so, so, so many talented sculptors and artists in the city, this should be standard practice. Why doesn’t Artcite try to work with the city to have a small bike rack sculpture competition for the downtown core?
Alternatively, we here at Broken City Lab are working on brainstorming new ways to turn any piece of infrastructure into a functioning, safe, and secure bike rack.
[via Worldchanging & spacing]
Scavenge the City Recap
A week ago, on an incredibly cold, rainy, snowy evening, we headed out on an exploration of Windsor’s downtown guided by a randomly assembled algorithm for Scavenge The City. We only made it through the first 20 steps (we stopped checking them off though), plus a couple others we skipped to by the end, but for the two or three hours we were out, it was great to experience the city with new people in new ways.
To see the algorithm, you can view it randomly assembled, refresh it to see a new order.