It happened one Nuit Blanche

Another year and another Nuit Blanche has come and gone. Each year it seems the event gets bigger, and thus my disappointment about not being able to see everything increases. Despite that, the event is always one of my favorite nights each year as a result of the unique opportunity to experience so many different and unique forms of art that inspire, intrigue, overwhelm, and make me go "what the....". Although a lot of debate surrounds the "pureness" of the art, one thing that can be surely agreed upon is that it is great way to bring art to the masses, whether we get the meaning behind it or not. Unfortunately my night this year was severely hampered by a completely ineffective TTC, to the point that I spent more time walking than viewing. That being said, I'm still glad I went out, I still saw a bunch of cool stuff, and I think that more than ever it is important for us as a city to embrace these events that bring everyone together and show the Rob Ford's of the world that closing streets and enjoying art is a meaningful and worthwhile activity.

 And now, my photo-diary of the night! Unfortunately the first two exhibits we saw either didn't allow photographs, or were not conducive to iPhone camera technology. But they were probably among my favorite from the evening. The first involved lying in a church pew (which served as your "coffin") and listening to people talk to you over your grave (complete with video on the ceiling). The second was a performance piece by a guy with a phantom limb that involved water, lights, music, and film. After that we saw a cool sound installation. A track was playing speech that kept coming out of different speakers, all of which was on the topic of listening. The organ was playing music that also changed speakers, for an overall interesting auditory experience.

 The next set of pictures are from the Gladstone, which we finally got to after walking all the way down Dufferin from Bloor. There were numerous small exhibits here, each offering something a little bit different. I really wanted to push this coat hanger mass around, since it reminded me of a tumbleweed, but I figured the artist wouldn't appreciate it too much. That and I don't think it would have fit through the door frame.

 This exhibit allowed participants to create roses out of clay and add them to the collection. There were already a sizable amount by the time we go there around 2am. I'm curious to see how big it got by dawn.

 In a room that offered a drawing of what the view would have looked like during the heyday of the British Empire in the Toronto region, one participant added his own form of art.

 Because nothing excites me more than things made out of food!This......sculpture?....is made out of milk, believe it or not!

These two pictures are of a screen that had a permanent foreground, but a varied background. On top of that, audience members could go behind the screen and poke their heads through to become part of the exhibit, as Chris did below. And since we were all the way over at the Gladstone, no line-ups!

 A room filled with crazy black balloons. This was almost like a spiderweb, but black, and well, without any spiders.

 I don't even know what this was, but this picture is from a section of a wall piece that looked cool in person, and managed to photograph pretty well too.

 Like the rubik's cube art that is on display in the Distillery District, this image was better seen through the screen of a digital camera. This was part of an exhibit at the Gardiner museum that was supposed to deal with our future society. However, I felt that the various elements there did not really connect with that message, and was mostly disappointed.

 By now it was around 3:30am so most of the crowds were gone, but Bloor street was still closed, and even regular traffic information screens were serving as canvases for the evening.

Lastly, a giant projection onto the face of Holt Renfrew. I don't know where the got the pictures from--it would have been really cool if they were from people at other Nuit Blanch exhibits--but all those smiles were a nice way to end the evening.