NUIT BLANCHE TORONTO 2011

Ah, autumn. Time for raking leaves, shopping for Halloween costumes, harvesting pumpkins ... and having furry robotic eyes chase you around a stage as they try to turn your face into music ...

Yes, Nuit Blanche time in Toronto once again.

This installation at Dundas Square was one of two that featured robots obsessed with copying our images. This one took pictures of your face then transformed the pixels into audio tracks. Across the street at the Eaton Centre more robots chased folks around, desperate to take pics of them and to determine how famous they may, or may not, be.

There was a theme running through some of the installations this year, that of being observed, of being listed, of being analyzed and categorized and fit into boundries. Can anyone say G20 summit?

This is actually a kind of art that I like, using ulitarian objects for a purpose of expression. OK, this particular installation may not have been subtle, but it made its point, especially staged on a barricaded Younge Street in front of an incredibly annoying glaring light

Another theme that we noticed throughout the night was transformation The eyebots in Dundas Square transformed your face into audio. As we wandered around in search of art and french fries we had one of those lovely Nuit Blanche experiences, quite by accident seeing a light down this narrow alley and following it into this little courtyard I never knew was there ... and found this lovely installation of cardboard tubes where tiny dots of light responded to hand claps.

There was more commercialism evident at this years Blanche; we found this interesting installation that featured a drummer swallowed up by an automobile ... an event sponsored by Ford and that lead you to a little exhibit that was essentially a car dealership

Over at City Hall, art was taking flight ... ok I really should be ashamed of that one. You see, they had erected towers and strung cables across Nathan Phillips Square, put people into giant bird suits and flew them around ... so art took flight. Yes, I should be ashamed of that one. But of course, I'm not

We ended up the night with the almost obligatory fire show. In a parking lot beside the bus station, three giant fire cannon belched flame in time to music and from input from volunteers. There were wrecked cars, girls with flaming hula hoops, guys flinging balls of fire on the end of chains ... it was all very Mad Max.

The thing that attracts me to Nuit Blanche every year is the art, but not just the art on display. For me, there is art in the city being awake all night, of streets being closed, of groups of strangers wandering around together, united by our curiosity. That, for me, is art too.

And of course, here's the video