benchless - the site cleaner

i have purchased four watering cans, so far, for 12x12. four watering cans, two solar powered lights, two 15-piece packages of sidewalk chalk, one set of gardening tools, one marigold plant, two strawberry plants, two white snap dragon plants, one "sweet 100" cherry tomato plant, one "habanero red" hot pepper plant and one "hot portugal" pepper plant. i have also rescued one redbox, covered in images of soft porn, one mystery hanging plant and three african violets from various piles of garbage. every couple of days, my "offerings" to benchless are gone. the red box is still sitting behind the garbage bin next to the parkette and the marigolds and strawberries are happily growing in the water fountain, but most of the rest has disappeared into the ether. where have they gone? last week, i discovered a clue: on the way home from a walk with pogo, i noticed a man walking down ainslie street towards me. he was dressed inconspicuously - a blue jacket, dark pants, a baseball cap - and he carried a broom and litterbag/dustpan which he used to sweep up a disintegrating piece of cardboard from an abandoned doorway. he was headed towards my site... i looked at him closely, but not noticeably (i hope), as we passed one another, and determined to hustle back and check benchless as soon as i had dropped pogo off at home. it was a quarter to eight - too early to catch him on tape, unless he lingered at benchless. i hurried a bewildered pogo home and turned back towards benchless. by the time i returned, the mystery man was gone, my chalk was gone, and the redbox was once again behind the garbage bin. it must have been him! the cleaner, as i now call him, didn't appear to work for the city, nor did he appear to be a resident or business owner from the granite block. my two initial theories were scuttled - who is this man who tends to benchless? could he be a local retiree, picking up litter to fill his time? a member of the legion, lions club, or kinsmen? a man serving community-service for some minor crime? perhaps he is unemployed, or under-employed, and one of the local aid agencies sends him out to tidy our streets in exchanged for groceries or a bit of cash. i need to find out! he feels some sort of ownership over benchless...he tends to it...edits it...who is he? a minor flu has tempered my enthusiasm for 12x12 this week. i mean to go out and wait for the cleaner at benchless every morning, but haven't quite had the strength or the spirit, so far. luckily, i have an eye watching the site even when my energy for observation wanes. yesterday, while trolling through my recordings for the past week i found him! while watching the night recording for may 8, i noticed the redbox had moved again. someone pulled it out from behind the bin and left it next to the parkinglot entrance. my interest piqued, i looked a little more closely at the recordings before and after that night recording, trying to catch the person moving it. while i had no luck finding the mystery box mover, on may 10, 2009, at 8:00 am i had recorded someone moving it back behind the garbage bin. there was the cleaner, with a friend, making their way across the site, tidying as they went. perhaps next week i will meet him in person, now that i know a little more about his schedule, and ask him about himself - and, of course, how he feels about benchless.

reflections on benchless

i think of benchless as sketches for my thesis...i'm trying to do a few things (badly)... one is to draw a crowd to my site so that i get some more robust data on how people interact with the specific architectural elements of these buildings. i've succeeded in recording hourly since may 1 - i hooked up a laptop and a video camera through evocam, a mac-based video recording software. but, i haven't succeeded in drawing a crowd, yet, so the recordings are of mostly isolated interactions between a few individuals and a limited number of architectural elements. i'm also testing the ownership of this space in a grassroots sense...who participates, what is acceptable on the site, what is removed, by whom and for what purpose. what are the rules governing this space in this community? what does it take to change those rules? i'm intrigued by the responses so far...mostly chalk drawings using chalk i leave on the site. (the chalk is removed daily...i haven't figured out by whom, yet) some of these drawings are doodles...lines, personal marks...and some are messages - "flowers were watered may 3", "your move"...and some are plays on space - like the bird drawn on the shadows of the tree branches. the flowers and strawberries i planted have not been removed or damaged...but the watering can is removed every couple of days, as is the chalk. the red box i rescued from the garbage pile was removed quickest of all, along with the solar powered garden lights i put in last night. the box was in a new garbage pile. the lights were nowhere to be found. does someone have a small stash of chalk, watering cans, and solar powered garden lights? i imagine that they are lined up in someone's back garden...inventoried, watiting for their newly purchased compatriots, which will be left on site tonight at midnight, to be picked up sometime tomorrow morning. part of me wants to carry 30 buckets of water and leave them all on site. fill the garden with dozens of solar powered lights...slowly blinking in disharmony. part of me wants the city to track me down and fine me...for littering? for now i will continue to draw hesitant lines...light lines...layering and layering until the picture emerges

12 x 12 has moved

i've moved 12 x 12 to its own blog http://benchless.blogspot.com/

12 x 12: guerrilla gardener

12noon may1 2009 (1000%): guerrilla gardener part 1 guerrilla gardener part 2 guerrilla gardener part 3

before | after

the plants were purchased just around the corner at baird's supermarket the watering can is from up the hill at home hardware the potting soil is from rita's sponsored by: mom&dad

what is 12 x 12?

for the next month i will record the goings-on in this little parkette at 12noon and 12midnight everyday. these videos will be posted on this blog for everyone and anyone to see (tag: 12 x 12). i have made some flyers calling on performers, artists, protesters, and anyone else interested to claim this corner as their own some day in may at 12noon or 12midnight. to kick it off, today i planted strawberries and marigolds in the waterless drinking fountain and i left a watering can nearby. so...think of something to do...it could be just you, or you and a bunch of friends, or you and a bunch of strangers or...you could dance or sing or juggle...you could have a tea party or a picnic...you could build something, draw something, take something, leave something...you could just go sit, or stand, or smoke...you could scream or whisper or orate...feel free to make flyers and promote your event disclaimers: try to not get arrested or hurt...this is public space...i have no special authority or permission to use this space...

watching

here is a new video sped up 1000%: 09.04.30 (from south side of parking lot) these are my favorite parts: the family the fence

watching - my favorite so far

thank goodness for spring! here is a new video sped up 1000%: 09.04.22 (from south side of parking lot) a close up of a kid playing on the fire escape:

watching...

here is a new video sped up 1000%: 09.04.22 (from south side of parking lot)

watching

here is a new video sped up 1000%: 09.04.17 (from south side of parking lot)

watching

i'm interested in the use of the stoops in along the back of the south block of main street, between water and ainslie streets in cambridge ontario. i'm interested because these stoops are some of the best occupied spaces in cambridge, in summer at least and because they are used by people from all walks of life: tourists, lawyers, drug dealers, business people, students, restaurant staff, low-income residents, store proprietors... this mixing can cause cause tension - territories are trespassed upon, noses are turned up, curses are hurled into the street, bats are waved threateningly, the police are called. so i've been watching...everyday i pass by the stoops at least twice, four times, six times. sometime with my dogs, sometimes on the way to school, or to work at a restaurant within this block. i am more than watching: i eat and drink, i buy smokes and sandwiches, i work, i visit friends, i linger. and i record. here are a couple of my videos sped up 1000%: 08.11.12 (from north side of ainslie) 09.04.02 (from south side of parking lot) 09.04.02 (zoomed into stoop - speed: 500%)