Coop Work on Saturday

As Ryan said, anyone who wants to build on Saturday is welcome. The work starts at 10. Who wants to go get breakfast before then?

Tour de Coop in Ft. Collins

http://www.sustainablelivingassociation.org/tour-de-coop.php

Tour Postponed due to weather. 

It will be rescheduled for another Saturday in the next 4 weeks.

Re-design list of tasks

Pallet Shack
• Chicken-wire the bottom
• Secure the doors
• Nesting box door entrance, creation of nesting boxes
• Lateral Support (against wind, make secure to ground)
• Staining/Sealing of wood
• Enclosed run/Fenced-in Run

Mining Shack
• Re-size to fit into BMoCA
• Change/remove gray box on top?
• Integration of run—underneath possibly?
• Secure against predators
• Making it more accessible for the owners to clean and remove boxes

False Front
• Create Nesting Boxes
• Create roosting area
• Integration of Run?
• Window installation
• Screen door behind main door
• Pitch the roof and secure it
• Add top to the front
• Make sure it is secure
• Make a new false front, the original broke in the take down process

recent Denver Post story

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11921746

Thoughts from last week

Thoughts for BMoCA space

• Do shacks all need to be connected to one major run? Can there be multiple small runs? Seems a bit overwhelming when all is tied into one space
• Should there be a specific “children’s area” spot in the sculpture area? Or is this taking the project out of the realm of sculpture and making it into something other than what we want?
• Can eggs be sold from our chickens at the farmer’s market? Perhaps with a particular stamp on them? Perhaps a display outside encourages people to walk inside.
• Architecture kit—maybe sold at Design within Reach and the Farmer’s Market
• Omelette bar???? Don’t know. Sounds messy
• Two brochures—or perhaps double sided brochure—one that tells about the artistic context, one that talks about getting hens into back yards
• Chickens there every Saturday, but only accessible by viewing. No human/chicken interaction. (Disease, harm to the chickens…)
• Live feed from interior of chicken shacks—“chicken cam” so you can check what is going on inside.
• Floor protection for BMoCA?? Straw maybe not enough.
• Video from Marcy maybe not in same space as chickens—instead out in entryway so that people can hear it and become curious.

What do all these building have in common? It would seem at first that there is not much. Two of them are vast public works that cost millions and millions of dollars to make and two of them are simple buildings that will never be viewed outside of a small community. One commonality that can be seen even from the pictures though is that they are functional pieces of architecture that also have a sculptural aesthetic.  What does sculptural architecture offer to a community that goes beyond the functionality of the structure?  Perhaps it is simply the sense of wonder and excitement. Perhaps it is a pride in who we are what we can dream up and accomplish. In some cases it connects us to the world around us that we may or may not know about. The Chicken Shack Village works in the spirit of sculptural architecture to give a more rich, textured, and audible voice to the concept and culture of raising hens in an urban environment.

Context (Santiago Pass)

Chicken Shack Village is a collaborative project that fuses functional sculpture, architecture and community art. It engages people through a community art practice that reflects the ideas of the new genre public art movement. Suzanne Lacy, who is prominent in the new genre public art movement explains, "Unlike much of what has heretofore been called public art, new genre public art- visual art that uses both traditional and non-traditional media to communicate and interact with a broad and diversified audience about issues directly relevant to their lives- is based on engagement."

The local Boulder vernacular and historical reference provided a foundation for our investigation of the architectural forms included in the Chicken Shack Village. While the Chicken Shack village is situated in Boulder, Colorado, it provides a model for other communities globally. Consideration to current environmental issues is also a motivating factor. The opportunity to engage in a Chicken Shack Village encompasses a closed loop system and allows members of a community to be active participants concerning the environmental dialogue of sustainable living.

Context (Yolanda)

In regards to the Baseline Group's "Chicken Shack Village," we are working within the realm of art practice that acknowledges and incorporates the surrounding landscape. Thus far in the project, our main aesthetic and conceptual interests lay in these realms of site, history, and architecture. We observe the societal reactions and treatments towards the landscape. We study the history of Boulder's beginnings, and are sensitive to the vernacular architecture specific to Boulder. We observe that architecture in and around Boulder speaks to a larger regional identity, encompassing social constructs such as the strip malls, the mining structures, the "wild west", and a raising interest in environmental consciousness.
In the interdisciplinary spirit of Baseline Group, we have the inevitable need to create collaborations and to move towards creating community-based art. We are interested in involving community members within the building process, as well as reach out to the community through educational components provided throughout our exhibit. The mission of Chicken Shack Village to heighten awareness about raising hens in an urban setting is a vehicle in which Baseline Group can create a seamless and active connection between art and community.

Context (Cobb)

In 1917 Duchamp questioned the world’s established notion of art with his infamous ‘Fountain’. Since then art has grown into countless forms and lives in almost any context. Today some of these forms can be found in the works of Mark Dion, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Agnes Denes, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Judith Baca, Joseph Beuys, Harrell Flecther, Ann Hamilton, Dan Peterman, and Adriana Piper. These artists merge art together with social practices and environmental concerns by integrating art into modern day society and community. The mission behind the Baseline Group’s Chicken Shack Village aims to do the same.
The CSV incorporates architecture, environmental concerns, and social practice within the world of art. The chosen aesthetics of our shacks evolved after researching Boulder’s history, investigating its vernacular architecture, and it’s relationship to Colorado’s regional identity. Through the context of art we hope to start a conversation regarding the integration of chickens in urban environments and by proposing alternatives to city dwellers.

Context (Bockelman)

When considering the artistic context that informs the Chicken Shack Village, we must look at the impact of the architectural firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Both Robert Venturi and his wife Denise Scott Brown have been influential within the architectural world as well as to the Baseline Group because they reject architecture that follows a spare Modernist aesthetic which only includes functional elements. Instead, Venturi and Scott Brown look to the preexistent vernacular architecture of an area for inspiration as well as to symbolic forms that act as visual signposts of communication.

In light of this, the Baseline Group researched the vernacular architecture of Colorado in preparation for creating designs for the chicken shacks. What we chose included references to the historical architecture of Colorado such as that of the mining shack and false fronted building. However, we also chose to emphasize the current architectural trend to use reclaimed materials in chicken shacks that feature a specific material like a shipping pallet or a door.

By becoming immersed in local culture and architectural aesthetic, the Baseline Group hopes to understand and strengthen its connection to the community in which it works.

Context (Schnirel)

Chicken Shack Village inter-mingles art, design, architecture, and the social/political to create functional sculptures that serve the community. The project generates dialogue surrounding the introduction of chickens in a backyard environment. Our group’s comprehensive investigation into Boulder’s vernacular and regional aesthetic influences many of our design decisions. However, we remain aware of the urban chickens’ concept functioning outside Boulder, Colorado and in other communities.

Questions surrounding the taxonomy of the work need not be ignored. We position ourselves in the genre of sculpture; however we derive strength from other fields like service art (a medium that provides for the community), new genre, and public art. Our multifaceted approaches to the artistic process and our diverse backgrounds allow for a constructive conversation for the direction of Chicken Shack Village.

An ongoing awareness to pertinent sustainable solutions also influences the Villages design. In an environment full of Greenwashing and proposed alternatives, we find ourselves utilizing practical ideas that leave less impact, promote stronger local economies, and demote carbon-based fuel demands. Although we merely implement backyard egg production, the resounding affects are an amazing environmental improvement to both the backyard aesthetic and the Boulder identity.