by jstnlngls
via Instagram http://instagr.am/p/VFHt2uJ0D4/
Working with @joshuababcock @lowwcat @hibaabdallah @kevinechlin @xyzena at #brokencitylab
Waiting for tshirts at #brokencitylab
Looking through time: the last month or so at #brokencitylab
yay!!! im super excited about this
Spending the day with the vinyl cutter & @hibaabdallah #brokencitylab
#brokencitylab
Shirt Pressin’
Regret/Resolve: Exhibition Planning
Yesterday morning Rosina and I went to the Art Gallery of Windsor for the install of BCL’s piece that is going in the Border Cultures: Part One (Homes, Land) along with some other great artists. The show is opening next week on January 25th.
We spent the majority of the remainder of day planning for the Regret/Resolve Exhibition that’s happening January 31st at 7:00pm.
Sara, Rosina and myself each took a wall and started pinning the t-shirts in different variations so we could get a sense of what could work in the space.
Rosina making a second row.
I decided to go with a more uniform shape, but it seemed to try and “hide” the fact that these were T-shirts.
Rosina’s more organic approach.
We almost had a full house which was great for working through our list of to-dos! Kevin, Josh, Sara, Rosina and myself hung out during the day, with Justin joining us at night to add some more input.
Kevin made some great renderings of the space, along with his own creative options of how the exhibition should look.
The most minimalist version.
Another.
Some song lyric manipulations.
We changed our gears and began to focus on the North Bay publication that we have recently begun to work on.
Diligent Joshua and Kevin.
Drawings, printouts, writing, brainstorms.
Rosina takes a stab at a chapter title for the publication: Street Etiquette for Strangers.
Meanwhile at the front of the storefront, Paul Anderson hosted his first Building Electronics Workshop. He had a full house of curious and attentive guests.
Taking notes.
Overall, it was a very fun and productive day!
More soon.
Behind the Scenes: T-shirt pressing for Regret & Resolve
We’re a week into taking submissions for Regret & Resolve and to get a jump start on all the t-shirt making we’ll have to do at the end of the month (remember, submissions close on January 25th), we’ve begun pressing some test shirts. We also got some great coverage in the University of Windsor Daily News (thanks!), and we’re starting to get the plans together for install and event opening (on January 31st at 7pm). In the meantime, here’s a peek at how we’re doing this t-shirt thing…
Using the handiest tool we’ve ever bought (our Graphtec vinyl cutter) and some t-shirt specific vinyl, we cut the letters backwards and then weed them (that is, pulling all the excess material off from around the letters). The vinyl cutter doesn’t puncture the clear substrate.
Then we take our little mock-ups and check for placement.
Hiba and Laura each did a regret and a resolve, laying it on the shirt, now right side forwards.
Then, to the heat press.
Laura may be the only one who nows how to use this thing so far. She did a bunch of tests a while ago and found the exact right settings to dial in.
Line up the shirt under the press.
And then, we have a t-shirt!
Hiba, checks her alignment against Laura’s.
Action sequence: Hiba presses the shirts.
It takes a good amount of force to bring the press down.
Then, lock it into place and wait for the ridiculous little tune that play in 8-bit squeaks. That’s when you know it’s done.
Then, we start on the window install.
And wrap up the evening putting up some new window vinyl.
There’s still a lot of time left to submit your idea for a Regret or Resolve t-shirt — but don’t wait to the last minute!
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!