Friday, October 05, 2007

What I did for Nuit Blanche 2007

... not much.

Freedom School was performing that night from 9pm-11pm. I was there to set up and there to take things down. I didn't really get started on things till midnight.

Most of the night involved seperating and meeting again, almost by accident, with people. I managed to see 8 sites and they were okay.

A19 - Ghost Station
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I met Steve in the lineup to see the Lower Bay Station. It was a long line. Big let down.

Dark, two subway trains parked on the tracks. Bass booming with a few tinkering metal sounds.

All I managed to say was Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot.

A15 - Footnotes
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Bio-degradable cellophane made from corn is spread on the floor. participants are asked to trace their foot either with pencil crayon or aluminum foil.

Artist is asking us to question the ecological footprint they are leaving behind.

A30d - Onscreen/Offscreen
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It was at Innis Hall. Three short films.
One was cut from scenes from Dirty Harry.
One was a movie with scenes of different piano players.
One was of random stock scenes of explosion overlayed on top of each other.

Overhyped, pretentious garbage.

A30c - Awakening the Electronic Forest
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I got there @ 2:45Am.

There are different things happening in at different hours of the night. A brief schedule is included at the front desk onsite.
I saw some projections of dancers.

Most of the shows were theather. I missed all the performance time.

I did see one show called MySpace. It was great. Don't want to ruin it cuz there is a two little suprise at the end. The piece divides our real and virtual relationships and the our current inversion of space and intimacy.

A8 - Event Horizon
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Fake UFO crashsite at King Crescent Circle. Fake new cast on projector. Cheeky, intentionally lame. Pop reference inside the tent.

A30a - Night School
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Another "collection" of different works under one roof: Hart House. Again, many many (too many) video projector pieces.
There was a mini-bar that had mini-bottles in it...

The most talked about piece there was "Slow Dance with Teacher." You get to dance with real life teachers in a university reading room converted to a high school gymnasium. This was a Darren O'Donnell piece.

B9 - A Dumpster Diver's Paradise
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This took place in the back alleyway of the Burger King at Spadina and College. A large dumpster was cleaned out and turned into a luxury hotel room for the night. There was room service, a concerige, fluffy bathrobes, and even a spa treatment.

Les had the foresight to book the room ahead of time and they were even giving away bottles of fake champaigne.

B14 - Collection, 2007
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Another collection of art under one space at the Cecil street community Centre. This one is mostly of performance art.
I had mostly jot notes from the night. It was almost 5AM and I was there for almost an hour.

- A women read dadaistic poems.
- Clown sleeps understairs.
- A storyteller, white man in white face
- An installation of pencil crayon drawings, notebooks, and trickets.
- A dancer on the stariwell, in white.
- Another dancer, slow -- Tai Chi-like -- in the garden also in white.
- A documentry of the setting up of this site projected onto a white sheet.
- A tarot reader.
- Two artist constantly working on a wire and pulley frame contraption. THe frame becomes a stageset for an interpretive dance piece.

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