Humber Polytechnic's Lakeshore campus celebrates its fifth anniversary hosting Nuit Blanche this year in a new home at the Cultural Hub.
Three Humber alumni who previously showcased their art at Nuit Blanche will return to reimagine their work in line with this year’s theme of “Tomorrow’s Memories.”
Casey Norris, the Cultural Hub’s project lead, said installations this year include one at the loading docks and many utilizing lights and more interactive projects.
“Moving to this side of the campus, we've got new spaces to work with,” he said.
Other installations will be created by other alumni, current Humber College students, staff, and installations presented by Arts Etobicoke and Lakeshore Arts.
Justin Gray’s Grammy-award-winning album Immersed will be playing on loop throughout the night at Lakeshore campus’ Recital Hall.
Music produced in Dolby Atmos creates an immersive audio experience and puts the listener in the middle of a 360-degree orchestra.
It will be accompanied by a reactive visualizer created by Interactive Media Professor Kristopher Ohlendorf, who prepared similar work for the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ohlendorf plans to incorporate moving rings as a central visual to align with this year’s theme.
“Every moment of time is distinct and unique. So having the visuals be generative and reactive means that every frame is a new thing you're experiencing,” he said.
"But it's also the overall thing that continues to cycle and repeat,” Ohlendorf said.
Etobicoke Arts is showcasing local artist Shane Ackerley’s exploration of art and science for this year’s theme.
Ackerley said his artwork contemplates what scientists choose to keep a record of and what stories they are telling.
“Thinking about data sets as a collective memory, like a participatory endeavour, I think is a really empowering concept,” he said.
His art installation will include a live feed recorded through an event camera, which only detects a change in brightness, and expresses visuals in tones of black, blue and white.
Event cameras are often used by aerospace engineers to track space debris. Ackerley wants to see it track people for this art installation.
“We're gonna make that public afterwards,” Ackerley said.
His installation will also include another called “Making Noise,” which will include an array of lights hooked to a panel of buttons on a sheet of aluminum repurposed from old satellites.
Ackerley is also currently pursuing a master's degree in earth and space science.
Lakeshore Arts is highlighting local performance artist group Maxei Clown Crew for this year’s Nuit Blanche at Humber Lakeshore.
The team consists of artists Paola Paz, Ruy Nieves, and Daniela Galaviz. They said they’ll be at the entrance of the Cultural Hub to greet visitors and mimic taking videos and presenting pre-staged footage.
The videos are meant to be indecipherable, suggesting the future is unknowable. The concept and other performances for the night are meant to align with this year’s theme.
Nieves said people tend to enjoy their performance art, based on their previous experiences, which included this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
“Some people get into the game really fast, and they just play along with it,” he said.
They also describe the performance as street theatre art. They said the medium allows them to convey sometimes important messages through a lighthearted approach.
Nuit Blanche also celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, inviting previous art installations to return, including Everything and Nothing (2014) by the late Kelly Mark.
It is presented as a dialogue between a man and a woman reading scripts that begin with “everything” and “nothing,” respectively. The performance will feature notable guests including former mayor David Miller, who said he will take the stage at 9 p.m.
There will also be new installations, including UFO by Brandon Vickerd located at Queen Street West and University Avenue, Simile Aria by Maggy Hamel-Metsos at Old City Hall, and I Miss You: T.Dot Memories by Francesca Nocera aka SUN SUN at Queen Street West and Bay Street.
Nuit Blanche will also take place in other locations around the city, including at The Bentway, the Aga Khan Museum, and Fort York.
Humber College Cultural Hub’s Project Lead Casey Norris said this year’s event will also have food trucks at the parking lot near the Cultural Hub.
“It's unlike anything else that happens at Humber. And this year we are doing something a little different,” he said.
