Posted on

New Exhibition: Unrest Everywhere (Tools for Playing with Halifax)

Just back from an incredible week installing at Eye Level Gallery for our show, Unrest Everywhere (tools for playing with Halifax), which runs until May 12, 2012. The show features a number of multiples and interactive works, all of which are yours for the taking and borrowing.

The premise for the show was to create a series of works that could directly or indirectly suggest access points for re-encountering the city and your role within it. We created works that aimed to be highly distributable, playful, and allowed a bit of critical commentary on the ways in which a sense of place comes to be planned, articulated, and established.

Below is a huge pile of documentation of the process — but first — we’d like to extend a huge thanks to all staff and volunteers at Eye Level, especially Michael and Matt, and to Emily and Kaley for the place to crash!

Continue reading “New Exhibition: Unrest Everywhere (Tools for Playing with Halifax)”

Posted on

Prototyping Projects for Halifax

Josh, Hiba, and I spent Monday prototyping some projects for our upcoming project in Halifax. This was building off of some small macquettes that Hiba did a week ago.

We wanted to work at full scale, so we got a bit of wood and started thinking through building.

The process was really quick and dirty, we just wanted to get some things closer to full scale to start looking at them and figuring out how we’ll move forward.

We’ll likely end up rebuilding these out in Halifax anyways, so these really will act just as a model.

Some of the tools. Yes, a nail gun. More fun and less sturdy than a drill.

Hiba squaring things up.

Josh, perfecting.

Hiba nail-gunning.

It stands.

Nail gun attack.

Circular saw. Serious.

Inspecting the cut.

 

The second leg…

More reinforcements.

And this as a result.

A very light-weight and portable sign easel. Designed for anyone to borrow and use for their own messaging.

Not quite scaled appropriately. We’ll end up with more surface area for the hardboard and the poster will actually be made on a roll of paper.

And maybe we’ll turn it into a backpack.

Josh seems comfortable enough.

Other ideas include adding some wheels and making it foldable for even easier transport.

Then, onto the next project model — the bike projector attachment.

This was seriously fast prototyping, and a lot of fun. Though it’s possible that Josh had moments of panic watching joints going together that were not measured, cut correctly, or even all that well secured.

But, here’s the gist of it…

Almost a reverse trailer for the front of the bike to hold a projector and a lot, lot, lot of extension cord.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll add some castors and more bracing. More soon.

Posted on

Halifax: Bikes, Projectors and Maquettes

I spent my Sunday afternoon trying to work through how the bike/projector project for Eye Level can function and look. I went to the dollar store and bought some pretty random supplies in the hopes of developing an awesome maquette.

At first, I started sketching some really rough drawings of what size this thing could be. My thinking thus far is that it should be no taller than the bike tire. If we do make it out of wood and load it with extension cords, it will be super heavy and hard to manoeuvre.

I think the way that this contraption straps on to the bike is really important as well. Bolts? I can’t really think of anything else. I wonder if it’s necessary for the strap to move? Or should it be static to give the bike more control on how the projector box moves?

I started building this maquette with weight in mind. My thinking is that if we build a really simple frame and then surround it with fabric or something, would that make it easier to push on a bike.

Close up. Yes, those are mini skateboard wheels. Dollarama is awesome.

‘

Had a little fun with this one. But in all seriousness, canvas could be something cool to wrap it in. I like the DIY aesthetic of it.

The second maquette I made has more of a treasure chest feel to it. The top of it has a window that looks into the box, with a hole at the front for the projector to seep through.

These are just my thoughts! I know we’ll be able to work out more things when we start building tomorrow. I feel like this piece has a fair amount of flexibility so I’m not too worried about it not working out. I’m excited to start building!