Continuing in the fine tradition of years past, the MONDOarts department dispatched four writers to cover this year’s Nuit Blanche and their escapades during said event. Enjoy!
By Jessie Davis
Photos by Kevin Lynn
Our Nuit Blanche group stood divided; half wanted to follow THE PLAN – an itinerary detailing exactly where to be and when, with bike routes, little red points on the map and brief installation descriptions for further reading. The other half was on a more freestyle mission: no plan, no time frame, no commitments. Just synchronicity and spiritually altering experiences. I was part of the latter.
From Queen, my group flowed north on Bay Street, where we met the itinerary half of our group in line to see Battle Royal in the bus terminal. The line stretched around the terminal onto Edward Street, and while it seemed to move quickly, our half of the group decided to keep moving in search of The Blinking Eyes of Everything at the Church of the Holy Trinity. In fact, this was what had inspired us to let our Nuit Blanche guide itself. A few of us had been discussing stroboscopic machines recently (also known as Dream Machines), and were really excited to get to see and hear one in real life, so soon after the seemingly-random conversation. Alas, this line wove back a few rows across the courtyard and my group just couldn’t sit still long enough to make it in there – even if there was the possibility of divinatory visions and hallucinations.
Our other must-see was the Witches’ Cradles installation at Brookfield Place, set up by the Centre for Tactical Magic. Two days prior, I had had a vision of spending time inside one of these womb-like nests, suspended in complete sensory deprivation for divine contemplation. Afterwards, when I learned that there would be the opportunity to experience it, I knew it was meant to be. I rushed to the registration area, where I was informed that because I had been drinking, I was not eligible to participate. I watched sadly as others entered the dark cocoons, suspended in time and space, delving into the ether of their subconscious minds.
Heading south, Heather Nichol’s Imminent Departure awaited us at Union Station, where we were greeted by pockets of people sprawled all over the floors of the station’s main level. We stayed here for nearly half an hour, immersing ourselves in the ethereal lights and fog, reflecting on travels taken and journeys to come. The audio, however, constantly sucked us back into the here and now – we heard the loop between three and five times in our short stay, which made it a little difficult to get completely lost in the piece.
After veggie dogs outside the station, we got a streetcar back east and headed down into the valley at Riverdale Park to see SUMA’s CUBEmunity project nestled in the vast playing fields on the west side of the Don Valley, where ambient violin music spread out into the space and enveloped us in calm, thanks to DJ Aria.
The CUBE itself was a little hard to absorb – though I didn’t have any background information to contextualize. Projections were displayed on the four side panels, featuring the negative image of a woman flipping her long hair, superimposed over looped video of a subway speeding by. While it did change every once in a while – to footage of passengers on a station platform and a few other flashes that couldn’t immediately be identified – the CUBE always returned quickly to the subway hair flip. Our group stuck around a little longer to enjoy the soothing sonic environment before completing our evening with a visit to our favourite tree, which lives on the Don Valley trail.
While the night’s experiences weren’t completely as we’d envisioned, we did have fun – including playing red LED frisbee in the darkness of Riverdale Park. In hindsight, an itinerary might actually have been a good idea, in addition to a little more patience for lineups. My plan for next year: pare down the group (to one or two others), choose a few focal points as the foundation for the night and budget more time for waiting in line.
They wouldn’t let you do the sack thing because you had been drinking. What gives? Are they your mom? Was it like the honour system?
“Have you been drinking?”
“nope”
“okay cool, hop in”
That would probably eliminate half the crowd.