ZONE A

DANIEL OLSON
FIFTEEN SECONDS
(Yonge-Dundas Square)
Brief description of your project, free of jargon: A two-storey wooden guard tower equipped with a theatrical followspot, from on top of which I — or one of my chosen stand-ins — will spotlight selected people as they come and go through the square. Partly inspired by the movies, and by Andy Warhol’s well-known suggestion that “in the future everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes.”?
How are you planning on staying up all night? I think the last time I stayed up all night was in 1984…. What’s the big deal?
How do you imagine Stephen Harper might interact with your project? Given the fact that he’s already too much in the spotlight, I think the more interesting question would be how I might react if Stephen Harper were to interact with my project (would I switch the light off immediately? jump from the tower?) or how others might react (would I be held responsible if he came to any physical harm?).
If your project had a mating call, what would it be? A mash-up of Bob Dylan’s harmonica solo and Jimi Hendrix’s guitar solo from “All Along the Watchtower.”
Is your project an introvert or an extrovert? It’s the perfect extrovert project for an introvert — or is it the other way around?

KATHARINE HARVEY
PROJECT WATERFALL
(700 University, at College)
Brief description of your project, free of jargon: Using 9,000 pounds of shredded plastic water bottles, I have hired a crew to sew a 4,000-square-foot quilt of nylon, hockey arena netting. The artwork comments on the glut of plastic consumed in our society and its serious, long-term impact on our environment.
How are you planning on staying up all night? Chocolate, tea, sweets, MP3 player playing Led Zeppelin really, really loud, chips, energy drinks, any illegal substances donated from passersby, coffee, pretzels, megaphones, soda, lifesavers, those funny glasses that make it look like your eyes are open, a volunteer poking me periodically with a sharp stick….
Biggest logistical nightmare so far? The city finding a supply of 9,000 pounds of shredded water bottles one week before the piece was to be built. And having them transported around in a 53-foot transport trailer. Just ask Joe.
If you had an unlimited budget, what would your dream project for Nuit Blanche be? Cover an entire building with bottles and have all of the building lights twinkle on and off all night.

JILLIAN MCDONALD
ZOMBIES IN CONDOLAND
(College Park)
Brief description of your project, free of jargon: A low-budget horror-film set and performance where passersby, even those with no acting experience or knowledge of zombies, can become part of the action. Ambitious zombies are encouraged to come already zombified — and to put their makeup on en route in cafés and on mass transit. Makeup and costumes will also be provided on site for novices. See www.jillianmcdonald.net/zombie.
Biggest logistical nightmare so far? We [scratched] one early idea of projecting videos of scenes as they were shot, but I think that would have distracted from the main feature: zombie actors live and in the (rotting) flesh.
How do you imagine Stephen Harper might interact with your project? He’d be a fabulous zombie politician character, although something tells me he might make a better vampire.

MELINDA BARNADAS AND TAE HWANG
GIANT PAINT-BY-NUMBERS
(Bata Shoe Museum, 327 Bloor W.)
Brief description of your project, free of JARGON: A 40-foot-long, 10-colour paint-by-numbers depicting feet, taking up two levels of the Bata Shoe Museum.
How do you imagine Stephen Harper might interact with your project? “Every man a Rembrandt” — even you Stephen!
If your project had a mating call, what would it be? 1,2,3...1,2,3....
Nuit Blanche: Arty or party? Discuss. An all night party with an art theme.

MITCHELL F. CHAN AND BRAD HINDSON
A DREAM OF PASTURES
(Southeast exterior of AGO, off McCaul)
Brief description of your project, free of jargon: It’s a big, strange, old-timey machine, built out of oak and copper and rotating gears. The machine projects an image of a horse on the exterior wall of the AGO. When the viewer gets on a modified exercise bike and pedals, he powers the machine while casting his shadow as a rider on the horse. The faster the viewer pedals, the faster the horse gallops.
How do you imagine Stephen Harper might interact with your project? Oh, he’d definitely ride the machine. It’s specifically designed for the sweater-wearing gala haters out there. And if you put on a cowboy hat, it’s a great photo-op.
Is your project an introvert or an extrovert? Well, you need to sit on it and break a sweat for it to work, so it’d better not be shy. There’s definitely some flashiness to it if you’re a passerby, but once you start actually interacting with it, the experience gets quite personal. We like to think of it as one of those fashionable, outgoing girls who always holds just a little something back to really blow you away when you finally spend some intimate time together. Yeah, if our project were a girl, she totally wouldn’t date us.
Nuit Blanche: Arty or party? Discuss. If arty can’t be party, we’d cut funding too.



ZONE B

AMANTA SCOTT
15 MINUTES OF FAME
(330 Bay)
Brief description of your project, free of JARGON: Features a bare prison bed; a blanket, sheet and pillow; and a standard-issue prison suitcase containing assorted personal items. Visitors are invited to open the suitcase; to consider, select and arrange items upon and around the bed to create a new installation; and to write about their installation in the Book of Fame. Each installation remains on display for a maximum of 15 minutes, and is documented through digital photos subsequently posted online.
Biggest logistical nightmare so far? Getting run over by a jeep while riding my bicycle on Danforth sure hasn’t helped! Whiplash, tendonitis and a damaged nerve in my left elbow are making it challenging to paint and think.
If your project had a mating call, what would it be? Do me, baby: this bed is waiting for you!
 
FARAH YUSUF AND ALEX STEPHAN
R U PART OF THE ART?
(Zone B Information Centre; mobile project)
Brief description of your project, free of jargon: The project requires people to sign up for mobile text alerts by texting “yes” to 647-989-7707. On the night of Nuit Blanche they will receive text messages over the course of the event: instructions that they’re asked to perform.
How do you imagine Stephen Harper might interact with your project? Although it’s extremely unlikely, the image of Stephen Harper interpreting our instructions through dance is highly entertaining.
If your project had a mating call, what would it be? That Muppet Show song: Mahna mahna do doo be-do-do, mahna mahna do do-do do.
Nuit Blanche: Arty or party? Discuss. Both. Art bursts out of the museums and galleries and finds itself in unlikely places like the street, the park or even stripper bars. It’s a spectacle on a grand scale and one cannot help but meet it with excitement.

BYRON KENT WONG
THE COMMON AND THE TENSE (A SOUND ECOLOGY)
(Dundee Place Courtyard, 1 Adelaide E.)
Brief description of your project, free of jargon: A couple of pianos, some electronic devices and microphones all used to create live ambient music with a visual component.
(How) are you planning on staying up all night? To be honest, my goal is to create a musical soundscape that would allow me to fall asleep during my performance, but that’s probably not the best idea. I am greatly encouraging people to come out and chill out, relax, sleep. I am a full-time music producer so long, long hours are nothing new.
Nuit Blanche: Arty or party? Discuss. Neither. It is an open forum for and about the village of Toronto. To live and work and breathe [here] is a wonderful thing. We often take for granted our own luxury. How many other places in the world could [host] an all night event that celebrates art, people, communication, light, ideas?


ZONE C

MICHEL DE BROIN OVERFLOW
(East Liberty and Lynn Williams)
Brief description of your project, free of jargon: 30 feet from the ground, approximately 250 gallons of water per minute will be flowing out of a window from a historical house standing alone in a village called Liberty.
Biggest logistical nightmare so far? The piece is designed to be a logistical nightmare.
How do you imagine Stephen Harper might interact with your project? Catastrophe is an essential function of late capitalism.
Nuit Blanche: Arty or party? Discuss. I don’t see anything wrong with arty or party; the significant thing is that people participate.
If you had an unlimited budget, what would your dream project for Nuit Blanche be? I would orchestrate a city-wide blackout to create “Nuit Noire.”

BRENDAN FERNANDES FUTURE (…---…) PERFECT
(Between Mowat and Fraser, south of Liberty)
Brief description of your project, free of JARGON: A monumental work built from shipping containers that will stand 35 feet high and will beam an SOS to the city.
If your project had a mating call, what would it be? It’s calling out already — it says SOS! Enough said.
Is your project an introvert or an extrovert? An introvert: it is subtle, honest and ascetic but has much to say.
If you had an unlimited budget, what would your dream project for Nuit Blanche be? I would build my project into a sustainable living community. U-T-O-P-I-A, yeah!

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