Nuit Blanche is on Saturday October 4th. Here are my picks! If it’s your first time at the festival, check out my 101 guide!
Global Rainbow, 2009 From Chinatown to one of Toronto’s most iconic buildings, the CN Tower, Global Rainbow blazes through Toronto’s night sky. It encompasses the skyline and its viewing perspective is as ephemeral as viewing a natural rainbow. This monumental installation is visible from all exhibition areas. As a powerful and luminescent symbol of peace and hope, it embraces geographical and social diversity.
Made in China 2014 The installation is composed of clothes labeled “Made in China,” donated by the community and set in a Chinatown alleyway. This collaborative piece functions as a façade filling an empty space between two buildings, creating in this way both a physical and a symbolic connection among cultures
Screaming Booth This booth is for you who feel the need to express your joy, distress or pain. For you who would like to scream out loud but who dare not for fear of disturbing the peace, of appearing crazy, or of alarming your friends without cause. This public space, dedicated to screaming, is a soundproofed environment where you can yell without disturbing anyone. In this space, no one can hear you scream…or barely. It absorbs sound waves and produces almost no echo – a mere whisper can be heard on the outside.
Walk Among the Worlds In this immersive installation the artist explores the effects of light and lightness, while reflecting on the political divisions of the world.
The piece is composed of 7,000 beach balls printed to resemble globes; each of these representing one million of the inhabitants of the planet. The globes, made of a petroleum derivative, require the introduction of human breath to give them their geoidal shape. They come in three different sizes, alluding to the concepts of “first” and “third world.”
Shy Lights In the city at night, a circular spot of light might represent performance or surveillance. In each case, light aims to illuminate its subject. But what if lights instead resisted their subjects? What if those lights were shy? Shy Lights explores the distinction between spotlight and searchlight by reversing the roles of light and subject. Six beams of light act as anti-spotlights that move to avoid illuminating participants in this interactive installation.
Melting Point Melting Point stocks Fort York’s two south-facing cannons with an artillery of glowing good feelings, pouring forth continuously in the form of sparkling tributaries of light from the mouths of the old weapons. Accompanied by the immersive sounds of rolling waves and trilling harps, the work lays a defense against the swirling market forces beyond, countering hard with soft and dark with light.
The Red Carpet Exhibited in a dark hotel room, the illuminated carpet becomes a compelling work of art as it seduces the viewer to approach; yet at the same time, through the use of unconventional materials, it brings the viewer to a halt!
Impressions Impressions is a piece of contemporary visual art that is an interactive showcase for public interaction. An abstraction of Toronto’s diverse cultural identity; users leave their impressions, transforming a wall into a memory of Toronto and its people.
It All Falls Down It All Falls Down is an interactive, multi-platform art installation that calls for active participation of the viewers, using the elements of light, sound, shapes and structure to stimulate the curiosity and creativity of the participants.
Kaleidoscopic is a giant interactive kaleidoscope. On one end, the “viewer” can peek inside and turn the scope to shift and alter the images inside. On the other end a rotating carousel will invite passersby to, play, dance, sing or throw on some colourful costumes. Both sides of the scope will be able to see each other through a wild world of fractals and reflections.
You Can’t Go Home Again A banner hangs on the side of a bridge with a message for the commuters.
NightSuite Prepare for colours and shapes emerging from darkness via overhead projectors loaded with brilliant liquids, accompanied by a hypnotic, drone-based soundtrack with intermittent live accompaniment. Like the “immersive environments” created many decades ago that also used visuals in collaboration with music and other media, these live projections combined with a dynamic sonic tapestry take the potential for a mind-expanding experience to a new level.
Shipwreck High schools are full of relationships: the romantic, the strained, the yearned-for… Hoist the sails and help prevent a relationshipwreck.
The Arctic Circle Come see a wolf wax and wane with the moon, a hare swallow a black hole, a fox flash lightning, an owl embody a swarm, and a polar bear emit the Aurora Borealis like breath.
One Night Stand A pair of seemingly conventional photo booths will facilitate serendipitous social encounters between remotely located strangers during the evening of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. Through technological interventions, participants will have a photo strip that tells a surprising but fitting story of their night.
Ping You’re the paddle in this interactive reimagining of the much-loved 1972 classic videogame Pong. Get in on the action by riding the sliding track and lobbing the digital ball to the other player.
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