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Nuit Blanche 2011

dt_toronto_geek

dt_toronto_geek

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My favorate event of the year is upon us. Dress warm, take along an umbrella (rain showers are possible after 2am) and post photos here! Tonight from dusk til dawn, here's the guide -http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/
There is also a free app. that you can download and take along with you called "Night Navigator" for your Blackberry and iPhone or iPod - http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/navigatorApp.shtml
 
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While I am not participating in Nuit Blanche, I happen to be passing through Yonge and Dundas right now and some Police crowd control is need stat. Every light cycle I have seen someone almost hit by a car in the intersection. Even with the pedestrian phase and Yonge Street closed, the sidewalks aren't clearing each cycle. People are backed up down the stairs into Dundas Subway station and can't get out as barricades have been setup along the edge of the road on Dundas.
 
Have you phoned the police?
 
i just love looking at art with large masses of obnoxious loud drunks on street. I hope they got extra police this year!!
 
Lots of loud drunk teenagers out tonight lol

When I was walking by Yonge and Dundas at around 11:30pm I HEARD a car crash into another car. I looked back but couldn't see anything because it was packed, sounded like a fender bender though. I just heard a bunch of "ooooh's" and "oooh shit".

But I also saw a few people almost get hit at difference intersections too.
 
We started at 12:30 & got home at a little after 6. There were indeed lots of young, drunk, puking, rowdy types in the central downtown area, once we got the hell out of there (we should have gone west through U of T instead and avoided Yonge Street - me makes a mental note for next year) the crowds changed. All age types could be found away from Yonge/Bay Street, having fun, some were a little drunk or stoned but in a good kind of way unlike the uneasy, almost out-of-control feeling we got with the massive crowds around the Yonge-Bay corridors. Saw some crap, some mediocre projects and a few that were just plain fun, random and/or great. I'll try to share some photos Sunday or Monday when I have time to process them. All 'round a good night. It sure has gone even more commercial this year which I suppose is needed to fund a free event of this size and lots of places to eat/drink along the routes which is a good thing.
What's the big attraction with all those waffle type places everywhere? Had to have passed at least a dozen of them.
 
This puts a bit of a damper on the whole thing

http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/a...t-and-killed-near-trinity-bellwoods-park?bn=1

Tim Alamenciak
Staff Reporter

A man who was shot twice in the upper body in the early hours of Sunday morning near Trinity Bellwoods Park has died of his injuries.

Police responded to a call in the area of the park around 3:15 a.m.
The 25-year-old male was rushed to trauma centre with life-threatening gunshot wounds.
The shooting occurred during the all-night arts festival Scotiabank Nuit Blanche which had events in the park.
“There was quite a bit of pedestrian traffic but we’re still canvassing,” said Sgt. Raj Patel.
The homicide squad will take over the investigation.
The man’s name is being withheld until his next of kin are notified.


I didn't get to see much, but it seemed more ruckus this year, from what I did see. Saw lots of young folks at the LCBO on Parliament around 8.
 
Zone "A" Directory



"Another Protest Song - Karoke with a Message" - performance art piece where songs with political messages are on the agenda for Karaoke, Yonge & Maitland.



Project: "Still Life" - A photo exhibition that explores the surprising relationships that people have with vibrantly realistic erotic dolls. Photo on one side of each display, a quote from a doll lover on the opposite side, Yonge & Gould.



Zone "B" Directory



"Face Music" - Robotic sculptures compose their own music with input from participates. Micro-video cameras mounted inside the hanging robots move toward people's faces, capture snapshots and project pixelated images onto screens above Yonge-Dundas Square.



Rue Morgue promoting themselves in a hearse on Dundas Street



"Ride the Rocket" - multimedia installation inside a TTC streetcar on Bay north of Dundas. Inside, riders are taken on a virtual "rocket-ride" with the use of projections, video animation, computer graphics and blasting sound effects.



"The Heart Machine", an interactive fire sculpture. Protruding from a large central heart are 4 "arteries" each connected with sensors that, when touched, cause an array of flames that shoot 25 feet into the air from 16' columns. Bay & Elm Sts.



"Flightpath Toronto" - It took a week to setup 8 sets of scaffold with cabling that allows participants to swing like a bird through fog, lights and lasers from one platform to another. Nathan Phillips Square. This really disappointed me, things were slow to happen, they were using too much of that faux fog, they needed better lighting to highlight the participants once they took to flight and mostly, needed music to give it the feeling of a real event.



As nice a place as any to stop and hug on Queen West




"Juicebox - A Brief History of Rebellion" - Ever feel like you've heard a song so many times that it loses all meaning? Local musicians perform Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for 12 straight hours with special guests taking on the vocals, and audience members too. Spadina & Queen @ The Toronto Underground Cinema. My friend is a Nirvana freak so he was in hog heaven (pictured). Me, well yes, I "got it". Next...



"The Tie Break" - Performance art in front of the Commerce Court tower at Bay & King. ESPN called it "the most riveting episode in the sports history". Tie Break is a performance re-enactment of the legendary forth set tie-break from the 1980 Wimbledon Finals between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe played as faithfully as possible. Unfortunately it started to sputter a bit of rain as we arrived so a rain delay was called.



"Soon" - Multimedia installation in the courtyard between Commerce Court West & Commerce Court North. Something above Commerce Court is watching us and we're all implicated. Spots and lasers track and follow us and encourage the audience to participate. Anything can happen at any time, and did! This was my favorate installation by far this year, unfortunately most of my photos didn't turn out, they were too blurry - but it was much more fun that it looks. It was still raining lightly, but that added to the ambiance and fun. The thousands of watts of loud sound effects and rumbling subwoofers had to have kept the hotel and condo residents next door at 1 King West up all night!



"Monster Jam 2004" - Presented in the original bank vault of the Dominion Bank built in 1914 at One King St. West this video installation is a 2004 truck rally at BC Place in Vancouver that went wrong - VERY wrong - when protesters took to the field and stopped the show. After we watched it we snuck around and explored the Grand Banking Hall and other areas. It was 5:30am, no one cared! We had a blast sneaking around here, so much for their security.



We saw other projects too but at some of them I only took one or two photos and they turned out fuzzy or were way too dark to fix, even with Photoshop. We stopped by The Bell Lightbox and watched a bit of "Chitunes Orchestra" (video game culture with concerts by musicians playing custom-hacked Game Boys with popular 80's video games being played on the screen by audience members), "Man With a Movie Camera" is 1920's Moscow with live scoring of music (just watched a few minutes, it needed to be seen from the beginning) and "Singin' In the Dark" - favorate movie scenes with music numbers that have lyrics on the bottom of the screen to encourage the audience to sing-along. The "G" rated version played from sunset to midnight, we caught the "R" rated version that played from midnight to sunrise.
 
"Soon" was my favourite event this year as well. With all the young aimless looking folk wandering around, it did feel like it was asking for trouble by creating a mood of societal meltdown. While I was there security from all the surrounding buildings had to come up to deal with a couple fools in dreads who insisted on running through the pond. May have been a long night for them. I liked the spectacle of "The Heart Machine" and the goofy fun of "Ride the Rocket". And I liked the 360 degree video installation at Queens Park. It was way slick, but that quality seemed to work for it. Finding your way around seemed better this year, with improved signage, and I never dealt with any overwhelming lineups. I also ended the night at TIFF. Did that last year as well.

As much as the drunken dumb young people may lead to questioning where the event is heading, it should also be noted that it is young people (disproportionately Asian and female, it seems to me) who volunteer to work all these big public events.
 
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As much as the drunken dumb young people may lead to questioning where the event is heading, it should also be noted that it is young people (disproportionately Asian and female, it seems to me) who volunteer to work all these big public events.
Click to expand...

As much as the many young Asian volunteers were very friendly and very enthusiastic about the exhibits they were manning, I agree that they would be no match to control the rowdy crowds, especially along Yonge Street where there should have been more security and police presence.

I was up all night for this and generally had a fun time. I thought many of the larger exhibits were more of a light show with little substance, not much to do with contemporary art.
I thought "The Free Shop" was clever and witty. It was a bus shelter turned into a store where people could buy personal effects of the artist for free.
I left the mob scene of Yonge Street around 2am and ventured my way west towards Ossington. Interesting enough, I passed through the Entertainment District via King Street west of Spadina where I witnessed drunken stupidness of a different sort. Girls passing out or falling over hard and DB's kicking occupied cabs for not stopping for them. Though it seems like it was just another late night weekend on King West.
 
I didn't see that much this year but it was definitely a great event, once again animating many dull spaces and making the vibrant spaces 10x as vibrant. The interactive theme made this year's event more memorable. "Intensity" at Bay-Adelaide Centre's plaza was great for its depiction of tent city homelessness and for memorializing that experience in Toronto in the early 2000s in its own original way.
 
I think that will be the last time I check it out. I went this year and last. It's just not interesting to me. Not nearly enough interactive stuff. The stuff that is semi-interesting or interactive has crazy long lineups.
 
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