Last Dec. 3rd we had an event at Service Center called Innovate Indy. The event itself was great. We had around 120 individuals show up at Service Center with nothing but themselves and an idea on how to Indianapolis a better city. The people in the room were not your typical movers in shakers that you see on the news; It was men and women that care enough about their communities to voice their opinion and talk with one another about the strengths and weaknesses they see in the community.

What’s Innovate Indy about though? Taken directly from their website….

About Innovate Indy

Innovate Indy is a social innovation idea incubator to spark collaboration and to support creative projects and bold approaches to improving Indianapolis. Innovate Indy organizes forums for neighbors from across the city to share their ideas for city improvement and connect with other passionate people to take action. Innovate Indy holds monthly forums on the second Saturday of each month at Big Car’s Service Center. Groups that wish to pursue a project or idea can form a Community Action Team. As a program of the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center (INRC) and Public Allies, Innovate Indy will support each Community Action Team to develop and implement their project. Innovate Indy is a forum for individuals to connect, form groups, and implement their own ideas independently. Community Action Teams are community-lead groups independent of the INRC and Public Allies.

Really though, Innovate Indy is a lot more than this. It’s an opportunity for people to get their voices heard and create a support group around these ideas that they’re passionate about. For example there’s a transportation group that’s focused on changing Indianapolis’s public transportation system. The people in the group rely on public transportation to get around, and even use it as a meeting spot. (meetings on the bus are a great way to multitask I hear. I’m a bike rider. Bike rides are good too.) 

Innovate Indy is a great way to get involved in the city and help make it better! A common misconception is that you have to get involved in local government to make a difference. Not true. I’m watching people discuss how they can make their plans work now instead of later.

There’s and upcoming meeting Feb. 11th here at Service Center and for more information about Innovate Indy visit InnovateIndy.org

Yesterday was my first day as an intern for the Service Center. I joined the Big Car team as an intern helping out here at the Service Center during the month of January. As an avid reader, I was excited that my first project would be to help organize one of the Service Center’s most recent development: the library. The library contains books and magazines on a variety of topics ranging from art, gardening, philosophy, music, poetry, literature, children’s books and even graphic novels

While organizing and sorting through these books, I found myself pausing to page through the extensive assortment of art books. As a senior undergrad majoring in art history, it is relatively unsurprising that this genre of books would pique my interest. I was particularly drawn to the books that contained works of familiar and unfamiliar postmodern artists. One of the first books I leafed through was Interviews with Francis Bacon, transcribed by David Sylvester. I have always found the dark,abstract-figurative paintings of Francis Bacon disturbing yet mesmerizing. Bacon’s use of distorted forms, contrasting colors and dark imagery create nightmarish compositions. I skimmed through Interviews with Francis Bacon with the hopes that the artist’s own words about his art would shed some light on the paintings that captivate my curiosity, yet leave me utterly perplexed. At first glance, I was disappointed to discover that the artist’s words seemed almost as ambiguous as the paintings themselves. As I continued reading through the nine interviews that comprise the book, though sometimes vague and evasive, Bacon’s discussions of his painting, inspriations and ways of seeming the world help to inform his paintings. Although I will never fully understand Bacon’s paintings, skimming through Interviews with Francis Bacon has given me a greater appreciation for the artist’s complicated and intriguing work. 

I later found myself engrossed in a book entitled Short Stories written by Robert Rauschenberg. The title itself is misleading, because the book contains little text. Alternatively, each page contains a print collaged with unrelated photographs, drawings, and magazine adds. The absence of text allows the reader to narrate each image and create stories to explain the depictions. Blank pages between each print provide the reader with the opportunity to fill the blank space with a collage of images from his or her own imagination to continue the story. As I flipped through the pages, the disjointed collages slowly began to form the shell of a more complex short story involving robots, time travel and a brutal shark attack.I can only imagine the possible stories other would create while leafing through this book.

The Service Center Library will open for community use at a future date. I hope others will find as much enjoyment exploring unfamiliar topics and ideas within the books housed in the Service Center library as I have in the past couple days.

-Clare the newbie

Dorkbot. 

A gathering of Indianapolis’s finest electronic manipulators that meet at service center in hopes of sharing ideas, tips, trades, and mostly to talk about robots. Dorkbot meets here at Service Center every 3rd monday of the month and they usually have 2-3 presenters talk about whatever idea they are wrestling with or if they want to show off something cool. Last month we had a presentation about a group of that reprogrammed a wii remote to communicate and with an original SNES, a soldering demo, and a hands-on demonstration about circuit bending that ended up with a squeaking and squawking group of furbys. 

I would consider myself computer-literate. I have a basic understanding of electronics and how circuits should be completed (I used to wire dynamite for a living). I thought I was ready to talk shop (resistors? arduinos? come on, give me a hard one coach) and run with the big boys. well…. turns out my initial understanding of what was really going on at Dorkbot was wrong. Having fun is the only requirement for these meetings.

It’s not uncommon to hear during any presentation: Can you elaborate on that a little more?  What is this diagram exactly? Can you help me? Even with tonights presentations, you could bring in a group of middle schoolers and have them circuit bending and modifying their old toys in a couple hours. I’m not saying that the presentations are “dumbed down”, they are well-thought out and are as accessible to both a beginner and an expert. 

The meetings go over a variety of topics too. Tonight’s meetings started off with an ice breaker to introduce new members to the group and where their backgrounds are from. Some had backgrounds in programing, some in music, some in engineering, and even a couple artists are here, but it’s always a casual environment. The presentation moved into an idea sharing session, not unlike Innovate Indy that happened at service center a couple weeks back. One of the presenters encouraged everyone to think beyond being selfish with their own talents, we should all be thinking of how we can better the community around us…… 

The other presentation of the night was about making your own circuit board. The whole presentation was full of great information. Nothing seemed to be overlooked. I guess dorks really do pay attention to detail, one of my weaknesses. He eventually created a “punk atari”, an easy entry project into the world of circuit bending. It kinda stinks that Nathan wasn’t here tonight. Dorkbot has been a great excuse to catch up with him every month. 

Either way, Dorkbot is for dorks, but it’s not just for dorks. Well… maybe it is. Dorks are people who are passionate about a particular subject. I call them punk rock professors, willing to teach anyone about their skills and passions. So if you’ve got a passion that you want to share (I think i’m going to present about welding when I get my welder out at service center) come on out to dorkbot, where you will never find a more wretched hive of dorks and nerdity. 

Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try. 

-Yoda

Last night was the final event that we had in Big Car gallery in fountain square. It was a small event compared to the rest of tenure there in the gallery. A lot of personal stories were shared between friends and friends of friends and friends of friends of friends who’d heard about us through some other friends. Each story starts out about the same; I was looking for somewhere cool to go, I need a cheap place to take my girlfriend, I heard about a band playing here, I want to show some art, etc….. Then the stories take a more specific and personal route, but they still keep to a similar message… Big Car took a chance on me. 

Chance is one of the founding principals of the dadaist and the surrealists. Chance was believing that the creative minds here in Indianapolis would benefit from a space to showcase ideas and visions and not always have to worry about the almighty dollar. A place where someone violently kneading bread was common next to a death metal violinist. Somewhere where the walls puff their chests to showcase their medals but still had the humility to exhale to share a spotlight every now and then for a traveling band. The gallery was a place where you felt that anything could happen. 

That feeling is what really made Big Car, the organization, flourish. Objects are defined by the space they occupy. Ideas aren’t held to these same standards. If we let a space define creativity then the mission of Big Car is lost. We all can create places that foster creative thinking, but in reality creative thinking should be just as part of every day life, maybe equal to showering.

The ideas and shows that Big Car helped foster in Fountain Square have launched and continued the careers of artist (I say this in the most general terms as possible, I believe everyone is an artist somehow, someway) and has nurtured an arts culture in a neighborhood in need. Fountain Square in the few years that Big Car has been there has seen numerous galleries come and go, a contemporary arts museum (iMOCA) move into the neighborhood, and even has an arts council and a yearly art parade. It’s not uncommon for 1,000 people to flood the area on a first friday and patron the numerous restaurants and bars in the area. This is a new culture for the area, no longer being an avoided part of town but now seen as a destination for arts. 

While the Gallery might be gone, Service Center and our MFEO space are still running strong. I’m currently typing this post on our design workstation computer. No Exit is currently preparing for their 7th night in their 9 show run of the nutcracker. Every time the actors come in they are amazed by whatever activity is going on at the time, even participating if they are ready for the play. We have a family that consistently stops by for our drop-in art classes. Tonight they are making life murals based on significant events in their life. As much as I wish, coming into Service Center isn’t on his list. I don’t want to push it. When they left today they all waved goodbye and said “goodbye Tom!”. The mom loads the kids into the truck, two at a time, till they’re all buckled in and takes them home for dinner. Before they left we talked about what activity we want to do saturday. From their vote it’s a split between stick monsters and playing tell tale, a story telling game that gives you 8 random images and you make the connections between them. 

We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life.

-Steve Jobs

I remember 1 year ago pretty vividly. November 14th 2010 was the first day Kevin McKelvey, Jim Walker, and myself got caught peeping in the windows of the current day Service Center. The day before was Jim’s Birthday, and we had just completed one of the best spotlighted Made 4 Each Other projects (#mce_temp_url#) and we had just discussed some future projects with Harrell Fletcher, one of them being another pop up gallery somewhere in the city similar to our east 10th space. I had presented that friday (the 12th) at Petcha Kutcha about a space in Lafayette Square that celebrated the culture and community that was already there by creating art projects inspired by the people around us and collaborating with them on new projects. 

Fast forward a year. Service Center is open to the public 3 days a week: Wednesday, Thursday 11-7 and Saturday 10-2 with drop-in art classes, a fully stocked library with books covering all aspects of art, gardening, literature, and other topics I’d like to come to service center to discover. We also have the city’s first garden on top of asphalt. Every week we have some sort of event out at service center. We had Think Farm last Friday, an idea sharing presentation, and this saturday the 19th we have a Harvest Festival supporting the immigrant farmers that we’ve been working with all year behind the mall. Find more info @ Bigcar.org. 

From a personal standpoint it’s been amazing to see a community be so curious about the changes being made to a once empty building. The whole Lafayette Square area isn’t new to the idea of reusing an old building, but a lot of the reuse happens on the inside of the building with nothing but a new sign on the outside of the building. The great thing about Service Center is that the entire building is one giant window, it’s impossible to hide anything you’re doing on the inside and counter that with this giant green jungle of a garden we’re growing on the pavement, there’s always someone driving up and asking what’s going on here. I’m always happy to answer questions and it usually leads to a quick conversation on how can service center help them out. 

Speaking of driving, we’ve got some serious problems with people speeding around Service Center. When we were first fixing up service center one of the biggest problems we saw was people cutting through the parking lot with no concern of safety. At first it started with people cutting through the parking lot in front of service center. We put in a garden to help prevent the flow of traffic away from the bus stop right there in front of our center. A lot of us in Big Car also have children, so when we are working in the garden it would be nice to have a safe spot for them to run around without being struck by some guy cutting through the parking lot to save 10 seconds to get to Don’s Guns. We’ve had people get stuck in the garden, drive over curbs, and even cut through the garage when we had the doors open. Things have gotten better the past couple months, but we have a small gap in the front of the garden where we have access for one car to pass through where we had someone speed through the other day. I’d like to keep from putting up speed bumps or any sort of sign that tells people to slow down, but if I have to I will. I don’t think it’ll be a regular sign, it’ll be something more like the Fremont bridge troll and make people think twice before driving gun-ho through the parking lot. 

I think i’m going to start construction this week. Come by and help. You’ve always got the best ideas. Let’s collaborate. 

-Unite for Culture and Community 

A cricket chirps

in car bays 

its own intercom.

*

Mexican Bean Beetle, 

little dotted traffic cone,

seal your carapace, don’t fly.

*

Cucumber beetles

hide under leaves

in fast-food lines. 

*

Wolf Spiders patrol, stalk, kill.

One is an hierarchical pack.

*

Overhang flourescents,

landing lights for dragonflies.

*

A daddy long legs blooms

in a marigold start no bigger

than one of his legs

and waits to inject his

small-fanged poison.

*

Vine borers hide 

and ooze secrets 

like teenagers.

*

Stink bugs lay eggs

in rows under leaves

like an abacus, 

one that we’ll count to zero

with finger flicks and rubs.