[murmur] Cara V.

For the [murmur] project I choose a couple in the Richmond and Spadina area, in my neighborhood.

Queen St. Allies "Grafitti Alley"
- organized grafitti wall
- enterence between TD Bank and Starbucks Buildings on the corner of Richmond and Spadina.
- art by Elixir - grafitti artist/illustrator co-lab
- as part of "Styles and Progress" grafitti festival

Starbucks Thimble - Northwest Corner of Richmond and Spadina
- historical community market and fashion district
- neighborhood used to be all fashion/clothing warehouses
- have since moved offshore/international
- concrete/bronze tower of thimble and buttons

Fashion Building - 130 Spadina "Aklers Furs"
- story tellers worked in fur shop as young man
- dirty work, dirt and fur flying everywhere
- worked for 3-4 months a year, as was seasonal work
- job was to wet skins, mostly silver fox, learned to block furs.

Lily's Footprint

In order to help reduce my ecological footprint I intend to cut back on how often I go shopping and purchase new goods. I also plan on cutting back the amount of meat I eat weekly. This will help lower how high my food percentage currently is.

timothy lee's footprint

According to the result it would need 5.4 planet of resources o-o” to support my life style. which pretty surprised me. Overall, it’s the food and services that had have taken most of the resources. In order to reduce this effect, guess I’ll have to become a vegetarian and avoid using services that much. So I ended up doing another quiz again with the solutions that I’ve in mind and thankfully the resources reduced to 3.0 planets.

Sasha's Foot print calculater

To be honest, i was expecting my results to be better. Though the quiz is very interesting and nicely designed, I felt that there were flaws in some of the questions. Specifically, I felt that they should have given the option to choose "used clothing" in refrence to the clothing question. I buy lots of clothing, however everything with the exception of undies and socks is bought at thrift and used clothing stores and I feel like that may have changed my estimate mildly. However

the quiz is a true eye opener.

Some of the things i would like to begin doing to lower my global footprint :

-reduce time spent in the shower to 5 mintues

-change shower head to a low flow shower head

- recycle everything!

-Get bio-degratable doggie bags

- Used found or recycled materials in my art as frequently as possible!

Quiz Result

I need 4 Earthes to maitain my lifestyle. One of my problem is because I drive around a bit too much. Sometimes I like to travel with my friends and I'm always the one driving. There are few ways to make this problem smaller, i guess i can travel less distance, or maybe take a tour bus.

The murmur project

Katie's Footprint

After doing this quiz I reallized how much of the worlds resources im using. I feel bad for the world because I keep hurting it, so I have thought of some ways to decrease the strain I place on the earth. I will try not to go to so many different places in my boyfriends car and try to use more public transit. I will try to use less plastic bags and purchase products that have less packaging. I will also try to eat less processed foods and eat more home cooked meals made from fresh foods and produce.

[ Mur Mur ] : Joanna Katherine Katie Stephanie Timothy

The stories were very normal neighborhood stories. It took a long time for us to decide which story was our favorite story. The stories were told by people from different nationalities. Some of the people’s accents were strange or they didn’t speak very clearly.

Our favorite story is "located" at 177 Spadina Ave. which is about the school and was the one of the first to have Chinese heritage language class, this was one of the story that we could relate to because we are Chinese students and sometimes get picked on too. This was quite an interesting and fun experience for us, since we already knew each other from before, therefore we took this as sort of a field trip and had fun. We learned some new things, and took some interesting pictures in our community, but most importantly we did some shopping!

Technical photo for Ash. Ver. Dave

The average height of these signs is 80-83 inches. I guess any higher and the numbers would be hard to read.

This story was okay, but not exactly rivetting. Our group is a democracy of 3 and we debated this story choice for several minutes on the sidewalk until it became quite personal - we made a scene, hurling insults at one another and kicking each other in the shins.
People were turning their heads in our direction. Other OCAD students were walking away trying to disassociate themselves from us, kids and seniors alike were shaking their heads.

Finally cooler heads prevailed and we all agreed to pick this story.

However, if I may - off the record -my favourite story was the one about the man who saw that one of the [murmur] signs was hanging loose, took the sign home, and returned the next day to remount it with more secure bolts.

Ashley James, Veronica Orozco and Dave

Walking through the Kensington Market area we were able to find almost all of the ears. There was one in particular that we found to be quite cute. The ear is located at 274 Augusta Av where Laura Jean who calls herself the "knitting Queen" tells her story of how she opened up Fresh Baked Goods (a sweater shop) ironically in the summer. The following week there was a heat wave and due to the stress she went to a disco party one night where she met a man named Steve. The following day Steve went to her shop and dedicated six hours to helping her get the store organized. Just five years later not only did Laura and Steve open up two other locations together, but they got married as well. We really enjoyed this story because now in days its hard to hear or even experience some what of a fairy tale. With technology as advanced as it is people have become isolated from one another and resort to e-mails and text messages as a means of communication. Kensington is one of the few places that still has a sense of community and communication.

Joanna's footprint

After I took the footprint quiz I find out I used up to 4 planet to provide enough resources, and I also created 17.6 tons of carbon dioxide to support my lifestyle. I would like to change my lifestyle in order to help the earth. I will try to recycle as much as I can and try to save more enough when I do not need to use it. I know if I'm the only one that doing it won't make much change, therefore I will also ask my family and friends to help save the earth =]

MurMur - Alfred, Stewart, Steven, Guia

After listening to many MurMur throughout Spadina, we found the most interesting one is the one on the corner of Dundas and Spadina, the North East corner.

There was the Victory Burlesque, which is the last holdout for strippers in Toronto. Many well known people worked there in the field. Richard Flohli told us that the stripper buissness weren't doing too well in that time, so actually many band played in the Victory Theater. Rush played in that theater and even KISS played at the theater. The most memorable show Richard talked about was a new year eve show with the band called Mechanical Medals and Mainstream. They played the show with strippers that were topless and was actually aired on TVO. That was pretty funny, we found.

Stephanie's footprint

My current lifestyle will need 4.6 Planet Earths to maintain with. In order to reduce my ecological footprint, I would like to change my lifestyle and use as few global resources as I can.

One of the problems is I have been driving a lot after I got my driver license. I will start helping the planet out by driving less.
To make this work, I will travel more with public transit and also get more people on the car whenever I drive since I tended to drive alone.

stephanie's carbon footprint

According to my results, if everyone lived like me we'd need 3.8 planets to support and provide for us.
With these results, it got me thinking of ways to change my lifestyle to benefit the environment, My largest consumption is the use of services, so I will try to cut back on that and try to stop splurging on trends, and goods. If I were to cut back on the consumption of meat, purchase items that use eco-friendly packaging, and use the bus more than I use a car I can bring down my carbon footprint from 3.8 planets to 3.2, which is a start.

[Murmurs] - Aleks, Haomin, Kaylyn

We've listened to most of the [murmurs], and the one that attracted our interest was the Far East Theatre on 270 Spadina. It was an old theatre that showed mostly Chinese movies from HongKong cinema that featured actors like Jet Li, Chow Young Fat and Jackie Chan.

The movies were quite cheap, $6 for 2 showings. The theatre had a small lobby, and had a table top Pacman game. It was very much a place for families in the community to gather and socialize.

As imports of Chinese movies increased and with the improvements of technologies like DVD, the theatre slowly lost its popularity and was eventually shut down, which was a shame as the community lost a place to socialize.

Maxim P.

According to the carbon foot print I require 3.5 planet earths to keep my kind alive. However, if you try to cheat, and fill in all the most morally responsible answers you still end up with 2 planets. I guess this implies that just for living on this continent you're already doomed. According to the site, in order for me to improve my footprint I need to become a vegetarian and make enough money to live in a environmentally sustainable home. One day.

Steven's Footprint

It would take 3.8 earths to support my lifestyle. Now that gives something to think about. I guess it's because i usually go back to my home-country every year, and it is quite far from Canada. What we can do is recycle more, and eat locally grown food.

Murmur- Alex, Daren, Joe & Mariz

While we were walking through Spadina st. listening to all the [murmur]s, the one that really struck us as a group was the Graffiti-related by Spadina and Queen Street. As a group we found it very interesting since we all already had the appreciation for street art and because we do see these massive murals of graffiti by groups of artists all the time in Toronto. The history behind each mural that the person explained through the phone and learning about them was a cool experience, especially getting to know where previous graffiti artists used to meet downtown to chill.

Alfred's Ecological Footprint

Its kind of interesting to see where my lifestyle takes the most in which productive area. I guess I do use a lot of Energy, creating 54.6 tons of carbon dioxide and also taking up 40.3 acres of land on earth's productive area. 

Mobility takes up more than half of my footprint, service and food comes second. I guess travelling around places is one of my main activities.

Andrey's footprint

Looks like i need 3.5 Earths to support my lifestyle...wow!

I guess i need to cut down on my electricity usage, eat less chicken and other meats and try to buy more local products.

Caroline roy murmur

I listened to all the murmurs along Kensington, Baldwin st, Naussau, Augusta av. I really liked this story about the Saigon Pearl. It was about this girl that came here and told her friends that she had to move to Ottawa for school and that after 10 years she found herself back here. This story reminded me of myself. I had to tell my friends in Montreal that i was going to Toronto for school. It is tough going to another city and leaving everything that you know behind. I really enjoyed this project. I have a friend that lives in Kensington and he did not know about the murmurs.

carbon maker : sarah bolton

For me, it would take about 3.1 earths to sustain my way of living. I don't really know how much energy I use but apparently it's still a lot. I guess I'll have to cut the lights as much as possible!

global footprint - Terry (tae yoon) Park

this is my global footprint, I would need around 5 mother earth for me!
Food and shelter sections are take most of my foot print, that is understandable since I live in condominium therefore I do not really care about hydro usage. To decrease my global foot print i should turn off all the light, try to cut down some more time in front of computer whenever i dont need them also try eat more vegetable instead of meats.

hello

hi my name is terry (tae yoon) park, I am 3rd year industrial design major student, who like to take photos, drawing and painting.











this is my room, where I feel most comfortable place in this earth and can finally relax from my work,and school. I recently moved into new place with my own room where i can put my bed, working desk, with window! it has been such a long time since I had my own room again and try to keep it clean all the time but my crazy schedule wont let me do that.
10 years later im hoping to be in my room again, but this time my life will be able to support slightly bigger, better, and cleaner environment

My Footprint - Caitlin Russell

My ecological footprint came to 3.3 planet earth's, and 15.8 tons of carbon dioxide.  I also tried out the Zero Footprint calculator, which had more detailed questions, and that came to 12.9 tons of CO2, so both results are fairly close.

To reduce my footprint, I can buy more goods using recycled materials, and less packaging. 

Ashley James - Foot Print

Well I took the foot print quiz and was quite shocked about my results. Apparently it takes 4.1 planet earths to maintain my current life style. I was aware of transportation and electricity having a negative affect on our earth but I was never aware that clothes shopping and eating certain foods could have such a negative affect as well. I feel that this quiz can be used as a tool of creating awareness to the general public informing those who are unaware that many of their daily activities are affecting the earth in a negative way in which they never realized. In order to decrease my foot print I think I would be able to do a lot less clothes shopping and stop going for pointless drives around the neighborhood with my friends.

Alexandra's Footprint

Apparently if everyone lived with my life style, there would be need for 4.6 planet earths. I had a feeling it would be high, however not this high. I knew that living in the suburbs would take a toll on the overall result, and by the looks of the pie chart; almost a quarter is taken up by shelter. I realize a smaller house would be more energy efficient however, with the grounds that my family does own, my dad has established our entire backyard, front yard and boulevard into a vast garden with over 10 mature, mostly carnivorous, trees amongst it. No grass or need to mow grass at my home. I probably could reduce the amount of magazines I buy, and perhaps subscribe to the Globe and Mail online rather than in print each day. I already take transit to and from school everyday, and usually to work as well, however yes ever so often I do take car rides, however I always carpool, and I mean hey I live in the suburbs, things are even further away then they seem.

[murmur]Vincenza, Stephanie, Sarah, Maxim and Rachel

On our walk down St. Andrews we came across the MoonBean, in which a resident had a old organ.

We then walked to Kensington Place, a alley that leads to a small row of houses. These houses use to be the workers homes of the Denison Family. I got interested with the Denisons so I did some research......

The Denisons were a rich and prominent Family in York. They were highly respected for there political changes and there military involvement throughout their family tree. The Market that we know today grew out of the Denison Estate.
George Denison(first image) came here from england and bought 100 acres of land in 1796. This land is now Kensington Market. Denison Avenue from Queen use to be the driveway for the estate which is the house seen above. Denison Square which is the park situated in kensington was the front lawn of the estate. The house was sold in 1889 by Robert Denison and demolished in 1890. A Synagogue was built in 1927 which is still there today. When we walked into the Kensington Place Alley we could feel the history and instantly we all favoured the place.

The last stop was Gaffers Cafe on 10 Kensington Ave., here a couple started a coffee shop which then turned into a story telling place.

Rachel De Vries, My footprint

My footprint uses 4.2 planets. To reduce these 'planets' I have to firstly have to eat less fish and meat and try to using post-consumer materials. Throughout my thesis project my goal is to have a zero footprint project, from the coffee cups to the materials I use for projects. I also about two months ago got bullfrog power for my apartment, giving my energy consumption an ease of mind. I believe I can lower my planets that I use by merely just working on it everyday.

Murmur Assignment - Jandy Sung & Anna Sun

Anna and I decided to go through the area between Dundas and College on Spadina. We listened to all of the stories which were really hard to listen carefully because it was too loud. However, we managed to listen all of the stories and picked number 213601 murmur. We picked this because it was really different from other stories, just talking about the stores around the Murmur location.
The story teller of number 213601, Jubal Brown, saw this tragic car accident on the north of Dundas on Spadina right after he got out of the streetcar. He was standing on the island and he heard the sound similar to a car running over a cardboard box.
He turned towards the sound in which a car was dragging a middle-aged lady underneath his wheels. The lady was moaning like a dying dog. The driver got out from the car to see what was going on and he started reversing ten feet away from the spot. The lady started screaming and this was the part when he left the place.

WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT LADY !!!!

Kaidy's Global Footprint

After taking this quiz, I found that 4.6 planet Earths are necessary to maintain my lifestyle. Although far from perfect, I do feel like I am contributing to lower my ecological footprint as best I can.

One thing I can do to lower my footprint is already in progress. My two sisters are moving out. Our house is now too large to accommodate those remaining. To make up for the wasted energy and money, my parents are searching for a new home that will downsize our existing one. We are also looking for homes closer to the city so commuting fuels can be reduced.

Murmur - Brett, Sasha, Amy, Lily, Marissa

As a group; Lily, Marissa, Amy, Sasha and I (Brett) decided to start our hunt for Murmurs on Kensington Street. We heard many interesting stories about the history of the market and Chinatown but it was one of the first that interested us the most.

It was a story told by Stewart Scriver, owner of "Courage My Love" - a vintage store located at 14 Kensington Street. He described how (it is unclear when) his daughter had fallen asleep one night in front of the television. A girl and boy had woken her to ask if she would play the "Hoky Poky" (forgive my spelling), so she did and out of exhaustion, fell back asleep. She woke up again in the morning and shrugged it off as a dream. Later, it was discovered that these two children had once occupied the house.

This story is a great definition of how the history of this community - this city - stays with us and forms the character of Toronto. Walking down any street, there is evidence that something had happened there before, and before that. Many of us moved to Toronto to go to school here, and despite only being here a year, I myself could tell stories of many places I've visited and seen. However, Toronto is growing and growing. There are many modern luxury condominiums going up all around the city. I just hope they don't over grow the character that many of our communities have to offer.

Joseph's Ecological Footprint

My type of lifestyle will need 5.1 Planet Earths and 22.6 global acres of the Earth's productive area, to provide me with enough resources to survive.

In order for me to decrease my ecological footprint, I will need to start purchasing products that are using less packaging or were made out of 100% post-consumer recycled content material. This would decrease the amount of Planet Earths to 4.1, thus I would use only 521 million fewer global acres, an area that could cover 391 million football fields.

Marissa's Ecological Footprint

According to my quiz I would consume about 4.1 earths. I was a little surprised when I saw this because I do try to conserve energy.  I do not drive and I either walk or take public transit to get around downtown. Also I don't eat meat, not because I'm a vegetarian but because I cannot afford meat. However, I am not sure exactly how much energy I waste due to the fact that hydro and everything is all included into my rent. 

What I do need to do to lessen my ecological footprint is recycle. The building I am currently living in does not have recycling and I find that i forget to recycle. Recycling only goes so far, but I believe this is one of the things I do not do very often and it is quite a simple task.