HOW DO YOU NUIT B?

With more than 195 destinations, it's easy to be overwhelmed by what to do this Saturday night. We asked artists from each official zone about what they imagine their Scotiabank Nuit Blanche experience might look like...

By David Balzer

CURATED BY RHONDA CORVESE

DANIEL BORINS AND JENNIFER MARMAN

This duo, best known for their project In Situ at the Toronto Sculpture Garden last year, want to keep their Nuit Blanche project as under-wraps as possible. Here's what we squeezed out of Daniel Borins.

A brief but coherent description of what you're planning: Emergency vehicles assemble at King's College Circle. Sirens are heard as smoke billows from a crash site. A single-file line forms, leading to a large white tent. Heavenly music plays. One by one the crowd enters the tent and witnesses an unfolding, intergalactic miracle.

Three adjectives that most aptly describe your project: Spacey, cryptic, mystical.

Why will this year's Scotiabank Nuit Blanche be even awesomer than last year's? Knowledge of Nuit Blanche has reached the total saturation point – everyone will come out, and we mean everyone!

How are you going to stay up all night? No coffee till 4:30am.

What will you be up to at 4:30am? Getting coffee, obviously.

If you had to choose a theme song for your project, what would it be and why? A sci-fi-electro mash-up played by the best psychedelic band ever.

If your project were a ‘90s supermodel, who would it be and why? RuPaul, for ambiguous cross-over reasons.

LOCATION: KING'S COLLEGE CIRCLE AND FRONT CAMPUS, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, 15 KING'S COLLEGE CIRCLE.

BARBARA LINDENBERG

Originally from Victoria, BC, and a member of the innovative Up Darling collective, dancer Barbara Lindenberg has a flair for the interdisciplinary; previous performances have been inspired by poetry and visual arts, and often employed projection.

A brief but coherent description of what you're planning: I have been working with a group of 12 dancers (two groups of six) to develop HT, a dance piece in which six performers remain in contact at all times with each other's heads. The group will roam around Zone A in this state, taking in the exhibits and activities of Nuit Blanche. The idea came from a 1927 photograph taken by Andre Kertesz in which a group of friends are posed with their heads pressed together.

Three adjectives that most aptly describe your project: Awkward, hilarious, beautiful.

If you had been given an unlimited budget, what would your dream project have been? The same, except I would have been able to pay the performers more. I would have hired a few more casts and paid them professional wages and had tonnes of rehearsals and created a situation where different casts could interact with each other and be all over the place for the evening.

LOCATION: MOBILE PROJECT THROUGHOUT ZONE A.

TODD JULIE AND JESSE EWLES

Todd Julie, who responds below, is an award-winning illustrator and art writer; Jesse Ewles directs videos for groups like Grizzly Bear, Wax Mannequin and Final Fantasy.

A brief but coherent description of what you're planning: We're planning a Secular Confession Booth – pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A chance for everyone to say aloud the thoughts they've bottled up inside, and are afraid to tell family or friends.

Why will this year's Scotiabank Nuit Blanche be even awesomer than last year's? If you think about family dynasties, they usually follow this pattern: the founder creates a successful institution; his son expands and improves on it; and the grandson ruins the whole thing.

How are you going to stay up all night? I'll be on drugs... all doped up.

If you had to choose a theme song for your project, what would it be and why? “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode. For obvious reasons.

What are the best-case and worst-case scenarios for your project? In the best-case scenario, everyone who comes through is cleansed, purified. In the worst-case scenario, some drunk jerk kicks the booth apart in the first five minutes.

If you had been given an unlimited budget, what would your dream project have been? Unlimited? I'd organize a huge uniformed procession culminating in a rally at Nathan Phillips Square that would make the old Roman Triumphs look cheap.

LOCATION: TORONTO HELICONIAN CLUB, 35 HAZELTON.

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO NIGHTSCHOOL

Justina M. Barnicke Gallery curator Barbara Fischer, Blackwood Gallery curator Seamus Kealy and Nightschool participant Darren O'Donnell give the scoop on one of Nuit Blanche's most promising events.

A brief but coherent description of what you're planning:

Fischer: Hart House (7 Hart House Circle) is going to be the centre of Nightschool. There will be installations, projections and video works by artists – William Wegman, John Baldessari, Amos Latteier, Toni Latour, Martha Rosler, Will Kwan, Dean Baldwin, Lisa Neighbour – who have a distinctly estranged and humorous perspective on pedagogy.

Kealy: I've invited French artist Thierry Geoffroy, a.k.a. le colonel, to do a version of his internationally produced “Emergency Room” at U of T Art Centre (15 King's College Circle). Geoffroy oversees an event where artists produce artwork, in the Emergency Room, that responds to current political events.

O'Donnell: My project is called Slow Dance With Teacher and it's happening at the Great Hall in Hart House. There will be 24 teachers, romantically lit, protected by security guards, who will keep the viewers behind velvet ropes. Sexy music will be supplied by DJ Nicholas Murray from LAL and the audience will raise their hands if they would like to slow dance with a teacher. Teachers will choose whomever they feel like slow dancing with.

Why will this year's Scotiabank Nuit Blanche be even awesomer than last year's?

Kealy: I've always preferred the number 29 to 30. And it will still beÊSeptember when the event ends. Last year it was October.

O'Donnell: Because all the people who thought it was a stupid idea last year and stayed home will not miss it, which will double the turnout.

If you had to choose a theme song for your project, what would it be and why?

Fischer: The theme song from To Sir with Love, by Lulu. We're in school; that's why!

If you had been given an unlimited budget, what would your dream project have been?

Kealy: To turn the entirety of downtown Toronto into an Emergency Room.

O'Donnell: To pay every single artist in the city to stop making work for one night so we could all rest.

LOCATION: THROUGHOUT U OF T'S ST. GEORGE CAMPUS.

CURATED BY MICHELLE JACQUES (See My Place, page 17)

SWINTAK SWINTAK

Stylish gal-about-town Swintak has already made a mark with her Rauschenberg-esque installation at the AGO's Swing Space. You ain't seen nothing yet.

A brief but coherent description of what you're planning: To use Murray Whyte's words, I am “infusing a forlorn dumpster with a veneer of lux” – that is to say I am turning a dumpster into a boutique hotel. Visitors to the dumpster hotel can check in, close the doors behind them and take a time out. The room can be booked for 10-minute intervals, and features all of the amenities associated with a luxury hotel, including 420 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, room service and a head spa, located in a small crevasse at the rear-end of the dumpster. In a sense, I am gentrifying the dumpster.

How are you going to stay up all night? Bee pollen, water, vodka and Red Bull.

What will you be up to at 4:30am? Firing the dumpster hotel staff for sleeping on the job.

If you had to choose a theme song for your project, what would it be and why? “Ritz Carlton” by Victoria Kent of County Kent. It's just a feeling.

If you had been given an unlimited budget, what would your dream project have been? I would make the water fountain in front of City Hall into a giant quicksand pit and sink all of the paperwork produced by the Nuit Blanche bureaucracy, God bless its heart.

LOCATION: ALLEY SOUTH OF COLLEGE AND SPADINA (AT THE END OF GLASGOW).

NATALIE WOOD

Artist, teacher and curator Natalie Wood makes work – paintings, performances, prints and other things – about issues of identity, marginalization and resistance.

A brief but coherent description of what you're planning: My multimedia installation is called Moko Jumbie Dance. This is one in a series where the metaphor of the Moko Jumbie or stilt walker is used to bring the past, present and future together in one night. Specifically, the piece links the experience of 19th-century black fugitives living in Toronto with the experiences of 21st--century Canadian immigrants and citizens.

How are you going to stay up all night? Music, friends and tea/coffee.

If you had to choose a theme song for your project, what would it be and why? That weird music from Close Encounters of the Third Kind – haunting, harmonic, yet addictive. Haunting because I will be raising the dead (so to speak), harmonic because there will be a weaving/labyrinth of experiences of hospitality through time and addictive because you'll want to keep coming back for more.

If your project were a '90s supermodel, who would it be and why? A supermodel? How about a superhero, like Hiro from the Heroes TV series.

LOCATION: CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, 10 TRINITY SQUARE.

ANNA BARELKOWSKI

Multidisciplinary artist and University of Western Ontario instructor Anna Barelkowski has developed a recent obsession with spitballs and balloons.

A brief but coherent description of what you're planning: More than 15,000 long, spaghetti balloons will be blown up and attached together to form a swaying landscape of multi-coloured tunnels and extensions at the Eaton Centre. A maze-like fort will form, its airy terrain a tangle of countless interior chambers, with places to hide and sit in. People will be invited to add to the structure, enter into it or just explore its various wings.

Three adjectives that most aptly describe your project: Interactive, psychedelic, squeaky.

How are you going to stay up all night? By tying knots.

What will you be up to at 4:30am? Tying knots.

What are the best-case and worst-case scenarios for your project? Best case: tonnes of people all night. Everyone wants to pump balloons. Everyone wants to crawl through soft and shifting tunnels. Everyone wants to add more balloons to the existing balloon-hills and then take naps in the balloon-valleys. Everything becomes completely blanketed in a tangle of colour. Worst case: pins.

LOCATION: 220 YONGE, TRINITY WAY ENTRANCE, LEVEL 3.

DEBASHIS SINHA

A member of bands autorickshaw and Maza Mezé, percussionist Debashis Sinha is also an audio artist and composer interested in fusing traditional modes of music-making and communication with contemporary technology.

A brief but coherent description of what you've been planning: A series of audio art pieces that are accessible by cellphone. The pieces are made from source material I recorded on my latest trip to Kolkata, India. I wanted to create a link between that city, which has so much magic in it, and Toronto during Nuit Blanche. In one ear is the constructed magic of Kolkata, and in the other the spontaneous magic of the streets of Toronto during the festival.

Why will this year's Scotiabank Nuit Blanche be even awesomer than last year's? People are mobilizing – they are realizing, in the face of cuts, what a great city this is. Nuit Blanche to me is a statement of joy and of protest. Torontonians want to share their love with the city, now more than ever. Last year was a shock – I don't think anyone realized how incredible it was going to be. This year we are going in knowing what a blast this is, and how important it is, and we are going to step up; I know it.

What are the best-case and worst-case scenarios for your project? Best- and worst-case: the volume of calls crashes the system.

If you had been given an unlimited budget, what would your dream project have been? An infinite number of radios placed around the city playing an infinite number of audio pieces and live sound streamed from Kolkata. People could take them and walk around and then leave them for other people to take and walk around with. Some of the radios would be carried around by friendly monkeys.

LOCATION: MOBILE PROJECT THROUGHOUT ZONE B.

CURATED BY CAMILLA SINGH

JANET MORTON

Acclaimed installation artist Janet Morton makes art that is hard to miss: previous work has consisted of sweaters for bikes, Christo-like cozies for houses, and a performance mimicking Madame Defarge's high-polemical knitting in Dickens' Tale of Two Cities.

A brief but coherent description of what you've been planning: I will be covering the roof and front facade of the Public Health Building (built in 1908) at the corner of Queen West and Lisgar in an explosion of pink.

What will you be up to at 4:30am? Catching a bit of sleep, because we strike the piece at 7am Sunday. Yikes. I have a two-year-old and am six and a half months pregnant, so I only plan to stay up half the night.

If you had to choose a theme song for your project, what would it be and why? “The Girl from Ipanema” – ahhhh – or perhaps “La Vie en Rose,” for obvious reasons.

If your project were a ‘90s supermodel, who would it be and why? Claudia Schiffer; she was a little more voluptuous than most.

If you had been given an unlimited budget, what would your dream project have been? The CN Tower.

LOCATION: PUBLIC HEALTH BUILDING, 1115 QUEEN W.

MATTHEW LEE VINCENT

Local artists Joyce Lau and Matthew Lee Vincent, who responds below, act as technicians for New York's Graffiti Research Lab's exciting Nuit Blanche venture, in which spray paint goes digital.

A brief but coherent description of what you've been planning: GRL's motto reads, “Dedicated to outfitting graffiti artists with open-source technologies for urban communication.” The Mobile Broadcast Unit that we are reproducing here is an accessible means for individuals to reclaim public space using non-intrusive, non-permanent, interactive digital technology. The movement of a slightly high-powered laser pointer translates into projected line drawings.

Why will this year's Nuit Blanche be even awesomer than last year's? I don't know. Maybe the same reason Aliens is better than Alien?

How are you going to stay up all night? Nap before.

If you had to choose a theme song for your project, what would it be and why? Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Free Bird.” Doesn't really have anything to with the project, but that song fucking rocks. I hope it gets played at my funeral.

If you had been given an unlimited budget, what would your dream project have been? Two mobile broadcast units? No, wait. Recreate the Battle of Endor in Trinity Bellwoods Park. Awesome.

LOCATION: MOBILE PROJECT THROUGHOUT ZONE C.

RACHEL E. MCRAE

Artist Rachel E. McRae makes installations and multiples; she has also curated programs at the Pleasure Dome and Inside Out.

A brief but coherent description of what you've been planning: I'm placing a life-sized, semi-hollow, chocolate deer at the gates of Trinity Bellwoods Park. At 2am, I will reverently chop the sucker up and hand out tasty little bits for the rest of the evening.

How are you going to stay up all night? My apartment is across the street, and so is my percolator.

If your project were a ‘90s supermodel, who would it be and why? Kate Moss: there's something feral about that lady.

What are the best-case and worst-case scenarios for your project? Worst case: it turns out to be an incredibly hot night and the damn deer melts on me, or I get attacked by woodland creatures and they eat the thing. Best case: A swarm of people show up at 2am and clamour for a piece.

If you had been given an unlimited budget, what would your dream project have been? I would fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool made from cut Austrian crystal with “Paris Hilton” fragrance and have several hundred pink, inflatable vinyl lap-dogs floating in the mixture. I'd then swim through the stuff till I was sick.

LOCATION: TRINITY BELLWOODS PARK GATES, 790 QUEEN W.

MISHA GLOUBERMAN

Misha Glouberman is a writer, artist, community activist and host of Trampoline Hall.

A brief but coherent description of what you've been planning: I'm going to get visitors into a vacant commercial space next to Mercer Union, where they will make sounds together, using their voices.

How are you going to stay up all night? I am a very late-night person by disposition. It's only through self-discipline and a desire to fit into society that I am ever in bed before 7am.

If you had to choose a theme song for your project, what would it be and why? Apparently someone recently recorded a full-length, highly accurate acoustic cover of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. That seems appropriate. Or maybe that kids' song about the song that never ends, that never ends.

What are the best-case and worst-case scenarios for your project? The entire project consists of sounds produced by the people who take part. There's nothing to the project except participation. So the worst case is that people don't show up and nothing happens. The best case, what I'm hoping for, is for people to have a genuine musical experience that's potentially surprising – to discover that this unlikely activity is a pleasurable thing to do, and to find something beautiful in groupings of sounds that might otherwise seem pointless or cacophonous.

LOCATION: MERCER UNION, 37 LISGAR.