Live at U of T

The St. George Campus of the University of Toronto was buzzing with activity at Nuit Blanche.
With so many exhibits within the campus itself, let alone the other 3 Zones of the festival, it was hard to pick and choose which exhibits to see. I really do think that no matter how early you start, you simply cannot see all of the installations. This I think is what makes Nuit Blanche so unique, and so fun in comparison to conventional festivals such as the Harbourfront Festival, (which one could see all of it in a 2-hour time frame!)

So we decided to cover as much of the campus within a small vicinity of: Hart House, University College, Victoria U, and up the Philosopher's Walk to Trinity College Field.

Below: String of Diamonds, Exhibit 12: Trinity College Field
Installation by Newmindspace (Kevin Bracken and Lori Kufner)


At Hart House, Alicia and I noticed how the traditional lampposts looked different for some reason. Alicia mentioned how they were considered one of the art installations. The conventional lamp bulbs were replaced with a flickering flame to create mood and ambiance around the historic buildings of University College. The artist did a great job creating this atmosphere, as it gave the feeling of being in an old European city, considering how historic the buildings are.

In the Circle, at the far end of the field by Convocation Hall was a performance art installation.
On an outdoor screen was an image that rotated every few seconds, but one of them consisted of the Crucifix in the center and on each corner of the Cross were swastikas. Both are considered strong symbols in our culture, and the screen displayed the two blended together as one. Controversial art? Perhaps so! All in all, the art was wierd, especially since in the middle of the field stood two people in space suits. Whether it was suppose to represent a lunar landing or extra-terrestrial experience.. it was something bizarre!

Below: Smoke fills the field and Space People emerge from the fog



Inside the rooms of Hart House were various Art exhibits that Alicia and I happened to check out. One that I found fascinating was a pitch-black room that had a kaleidoscope in the center of it. With my camera, I took a really cool picture inside the triangular-shaped mechanism and its result turned out totally psychedelic! Looking at it closely, the image has characteristics of a multiple alien heads clustered together. This was an interactive opportunity for viewers to look into the kaleidoscope, analyze what they saw and create their own interpretations.


Another fun and interactive exhibit in Hart House was this room with a giant blank screen and a platform for people to stand on. When the camera started beeping, it counted down until it finally took a picture and on the screen behind, you appeared, set within a fictional backdrop.

To conclude

I'm so glad to see that we all have a different perspective of Nuit Blanche. I wondered what other exhibitions I missed. The idea of a an all night art event is great....

Alex, I heard about the event that was happening at the The Gardiner Museum. I wish i went. It sounds like it was fun. I like the idea of strangers getting together to make music. it reminds me of the idea of Pow Wows with the Aboriginal culture and the idea that the drum is the beat or heart of the community. It was also interesting how you mentioned that these strangers were more like friends which is so true when there is a chance to make music and having fun at the same time. The black tape, live installment seemed very interesting too...I would've liked to see that. The picture turned out good.

Daimaine, I know that you were feeling a little sick that night and you didn't get the full experience. You also seemed to be at the events when it was most crowded. I'm glad that you got to see a little though. It also sounds like you get to see some interesting art pieces. The writing projection in a tent sounds particularly interesting, I would've liked to see that.

Nuit de Sound and Ceramica Bella

Nuit Blanche Spot # 22 : The Gardiner Museum, located at 111 Queen's Park put on an entertaining and completely interactive performance for the second year in a row. The Gardiner was the place to make some noise and take part in an all-night drum beating session held on the fourth floor. With the ready talent of entertainers from BOOM! Entertainment and with the help of public participation, together transformed th Gardiner Museum into a symphony of synchronized drum beats.

At this exhibit, whether you came solo or not didn't matter. This installation was above all a collaborative experience for everyone, young or old, to partake in. Crowding the large presentation hall, spectators watched as patrons gathered in a circle the size of the room. In sync with the beat of the composer, participants drummed together as one. The sound of drums lurked throughout each floor of the museum and spilled into the streets, which caught the attention of passer-bys, drawing them in to see where the melodious noise was coming from.

For one, it was amazing to participate in the drum beating session with total strangers. It created a sense of community, and I felt in some ways that those people were not so much strangers but my friends. Participating in this exhibit was a sensual experience, one that motivated your inner spirit to drum along with the beat and let yourself loose. Perhaps, it could be looked as a way to alleviate stress; music as therapy for the soul! Naturopathics might agree!

After enjoying my 20 minutes of drumming with the drum choir, our group returned downstairs to see the wide array of ceramics and glass displayed on the lower levels. Of my favourites included: Italian Renaissance ceramics and English Decorative Plates (seen below)



Ceramics of the Italian Renaissance Maiolica period, commonly featured religious symbols and other elements of Christianity. This was typically seen in the 15th and 16th centuries as a tin-glazed finishing style of renaissance ceramics. Plates, vases, and other household items were crafted in this beautiful fashion. It was remarkable to see the excellent condition of these European ancesserie pieces on display at the Gardiner Museum.

In addition to Ceramic art, another art installation consisted of tape! Guest artist Ben Oakley took regular black tape and transformed a wall inside the museum into a piece of art. His work featured high amounts of detail and quality. It was amusing to watch him work so meticulously on the installment. It was definitely worth capturing a still of this work in progress!

Hey OCAD!

Touring the Ontario College of Art and Design, (a.k.a. OCAD), at 5 in the morning was alright, however, only the 6th floor was open at that hour and the other exhibits at the college were closed. We did happen to get a free poster for their 6th floor exhibit called Testbed.

Some really fun aspects about the OCAD experience were that:

(a.) It was entirely done by students, possibly within my age group, which made it fascinating to see some of my own generation's talent on display.
(b.) It was very interactive
(c.) It reminded me of the display cases and talent that roamed the halls of Sheridan College during my days completing CCIT courses at that campus.

At OCAD, rooms were set up each with interactive exhibits. One included a giant touch-sensitive ball that resembled a joystick or mouse cursor and while moving the cursor ball, it would control the movement and function of a Virtual Reality character that appeared on screen. This sample was more than anything a great opportunity to discover how video games are made, in terms of the creativity and skill that is part and parcel to Game Design.

It was an opportunity learn something new, to interact with the cursor in a mock development stage of a video game, to allow the non-professional sensual stimulation and feel like a professional game developer.

Similar to the automatic vacuum cleaner, OCAD featured an automatic, odd-looking shape that circled a confined perimeter of space, staying within its boundaries at all times, and repeating a similar motion. As interesting as it was to witness OCAD's student installations at Nuit Blanche so late, it will be worthwhile to visit again next year, next time much earlier.

My Nuit Blanche: A Sick Perspective

Nuit Blanche 2007 was actually something I was looking forward to in the days preceding. Unfortunately when the day actually arrived I had the beginnings of a flu that completely dampened my experience. Looking at Both Jenn and Alicia’s posts made me realize that I may have missed out on a lot of what Nuit Blanche had to offer. Nonetheless, I still made my rounds to a few of the venues (half of the time without an actual map) before calling it a night.

I too started along Church and experienced the same things Alicia did, only separately. The Bride holding the lamb was one of the first aspects of Nuit Blanche I witnessed, which at first scared me into thinking that a lot of what I was going to see that night might actually be trivial shock art. Fortunately, as I made my way down the street I realized there was much more going on.
Going back to the women with the lamb, I actually do think it needed a context to at least narrow a sense of concept. Though I do agree with Alicia that it might take away from its overall effectiveness, I still believe the artist’s intent is just as important as public interpretation. Especially given that the venue was such an open form directly for the masses.

I also went from Church to the Conrad Development Group installation by Sara Garham and while I thought the piece was interesting, I was not impressed with the fact that its end purpose was to sell and bring attention the property. I mean even the positioning of the piece farer emphasized the architectural beauty. I was just hoping to experience the art and not a sale pitch.

Afterwards I viewed the String of Diamonds installation at Trinity College Field. As it is true that the piece was not as successful as it was intended, I still think it was a really nice attempt. Form what I understand they had issues with theft and damage but I suppose that is some of the risks of producing public art.

(photograph from www.newmindspace.com/)

I then made my way to Heart House to see Night School which was completely packed to the point that we could hardly move or see anything.[ Though one pro was that I finally got a map!] Although before going to Night School I stopped off at Diaspora Dialogues & The Word On The Street in Queens Park which may have actually been the most interactive venue I visited. From what I saw between the massive crowd, people were going up and writing something that was being projected onto the upper walls of the tent. Unfortunately I was too far back to actually read what was being written.

So, a short transit ride later I found my sick self at 401 Richmond where there were a number of interesting things going on, both inside and out of the building. It was nice because it had its usual open gallery feel and it allowed people to discover the space on their own. My favourite part would have to be the area used to screen old sepia/black and white movies from around the 1920 or so. I am a big fan of the time periods so I really enjoyed being invited to view some of these films in such an open and relaxed environment. It was nice because it wasn’t trying to hard to say anything or be “art” it was just a nice attempt at escapism.

In the end, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to fully experience Nuit Blanche the way I had imagined it, but I figure there is always next year.

Exploring Queen West

The area of Zone C spanned the downtown in all directions! Spreading as far north as College Street, west to Dufferin, then south a little past King Street and East until Spadina.

A great feature of Zone C, as well as other districts was that the TTC had Shuttle Bus services running on each of the major streets, allowing exhibitors to travel between exhibits and to each of the different Zones throughout the city. In my case, much of this area was covered by foot, simply because many exhibits and independent art galleries were clustered together on Queen West trailing into Liberty Village.

This particular Zone was one of my favourites, not because it was sponsored by Heineken - my favourite Dutch beer, but because it was a raw and fascinating experience of art at its finest!

This compilation of images (bottom right) was taken from 3 different locations on Queen West, where each experience represents an aspect of the true Art Crawl experience:

Left: Wall Mural at MOCCA (Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art)
Center: Coloured light mural at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH)
Right: Independent piece at Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts

At the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, a large wall mural attracted people to stop and take pictures of the sight. From afar, the wall appeared to resemble an "Alice in Wonderland" as the mural conveyed busyness and movement and so the silhouette elements could each tell a story from this piece.

The center image showed how light could transform a plain-looking building in the day to an art piece at night. From my own observation, the use of light was appropriate for C.A.M.H as it represents the diversity behind its walls and how no two colours or individuals are the same.

The third image is a conventional piece, unlike the latter which represent new and innovative methods of art. What I liked about this piece was that it was not a traditional oil painting similar to ones in European museums. However, this piece in my opinion, was a form of contemporary oil works like the ones I remember seeing in Montréal this summer.

As we journeyed Queen Street West at 5 am that morning, we came across the Beatrice Lillie Health Centre at 1115 Queen West. Plastered from top to bottom in a vibrant pink floral theme, the building's exterior resembled a super sized Barbie doll house.

Created by Janet Morton, this installation, titled Femmebomb, was a blinding eyesore of electric pink and flowers. No matter how much you tried, you couldn't help but notice it. Paradoxically, the interior was so dark, that in many ways, the first thing that came to mind was... where am I ? followed by an urging wish to get out A.S.A.P, even if it meant seeing the super bright pinkness again.

The ever posh and popular Drake Hotel was bursting in colour. The lower windows were illuminated with a series of horizontal fluorescent tube lights that psychedelically changed colour simultaneously with the rotating spectrum on the rest of the exterior. Inside, you could tell from looking at the long lineup that the place was packed and no one was getting in that night! Nonetheless, it was still a captivating sight to see such vibrant colour right before your eyes!

As you can see, Queen Street West was filled with so many artistic goodies, that at times it became hard to choose which one to see first, or whether to check out other parts of Zone C.
We did check out Spadina, but to our surprise, not much was happening where we were, (south of College,) other than a whole slew of Asian restaurants open late, feeding the crawlers of the night into the wee hours of the morning.

After waiting 10 minutes in line, Jeff and I went into the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art where we observed a film featuring chaotic wild animals destroying the inside of a home.
To me, I could only ask myself, "What kind of people would allow animals in their house to purposefully destroy the place?" It makes you wonder if there's a reality out there beyond the art piece itself, and if people like that actually do exist.

Not knowing whether to make sense of it or not, we proceeded to a sculpture in the Museum that was made with potato chips and dip. In some ways, it looked like a mountain of solidified dip with chips stacked atop as the trees. In other ways, the sculpture resembled a mohawk. Regardless, the sight of chips and dip erupted an uncontrollable urge to want to eat the exhibit, yet at the same time, it was an interesting piece of art.


Right: Chip and Dip Contemporary Art Sculpture

Funk Lessons

Hey guys. Here's the video I captured of Adrian Piper's film "Funk Lessons". Hopefully this works. It's kind of dark but if the volume works you'll be able to see how the audience begins to interact with the footage during Piper's lessons (which may or may not have been a result of alcohol!).