Today Sun Mon
It is forcast to be Chance of Snow at 10:00 PM EST on February 11, 2012
Chance of Snow
-4°/-8°		 It is forcast to be Chance of Snow at 10:00 PM EST on February 12, 2012
Chance of Snow
0°/-4°		 It is forcast to be Clear at 10:00 PM EST on February 13, 2012
Clear
3°/-2°

17 Comments

news

Building a (2010) Nuit to Remember

By Hamutal Dotan

20091005nuitblanche.jpg
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…Art! Photo by eudaimon from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.


Now that we have all recovered from our Nuits, it’s time to step back and take stock. When we do we find, much like we did in previous years, that Nuit Blanche is still at the stage of working better as an idea than it does in execution.
It’s the all-night art thing we want to love, and because it is, we’ve compiled some of our thoughts on how to make it better. Some of the members of our crack Team Blanche Slate—Jamie Bradburn, Kaori Furue, Andrew Louis, Steven Michalowicz, Brenda Petroff, Miles Storey, Johnnie Walker—share their thoughts on how to truly make the Nuit Blanche of our dreams.

Think Bigger

We would like to see more large-scale installations as the focus of the event, with a requirement that these treat the city as their canvas and directly involve themselves with enhancing, reinterpreting, or transforming elements of Toronto. Someone really needs to step up and take advantage of the opportunity Nuit Blanche provides, get thousands of people involved at once, not just a handful, and make people see the city in a new way. Participants need to think less about a message and more about transforming the environment. (MILES STOREY)

Location, Location, Location

Is Yonge-Dundas Square taking over the mantle of being Toronto’s heart? The throngs there Saturday night seem to suggest so. Unfortunately, anyone who fought through the crowds (and the cars) to get to the plaza arrived to—well, not much. It all added up to a rather underwhelming destination, perhaps even enough to turn people off from attending the Nuit Blanche next year. Organizers should attempt to bring a large-scale art installation to the Square. (ANDREW LOUIS)

Density Is Our Friend

As in past years, there’s the problem of walking long stretches without seeing anything. We found we could go from Yorkville to UofT to Yonge Street to Nathan Phillips to the Bay Street carnival seeing plenty of things that amazed, engaged, and entertained, but then we pretty much had to walk to Trinity-Bellwoods before there was anything to see again. And then there’s Liberty Village, where, once again, some of the coolest stuff of the night could be found—very far away from anywhere else. It’s a wonderful place to use for large-scale public art performance and installation, but it’s completely disconnected from the rest of the event. It would be great if an attempt were made to create an official route connecting all major zone areas, with installations along the whole way. (JOHNNIE WALKER)

Wayfinding 101

Even though the Nuit Blanche smartphone app was great for navigating the night, it would have been handy to have more analog directions as well. Maybe at each exhibit next to its description board, there could have been a big blown-up map of the zone along with recommendations on what to see next. That way people could somewhat freely wander from place to place without feeling lost, coming to dead ends, or having to rely on the not-always-accessible online itinerary they’d made earlier. (KAORI FURUE)

Still More TTC

A greater involvement on the part of the TTC would have significantly improved the event. From 11 p.m. onwards there were not enough westbound streetcars to accommodate the number of riders. At times, the streetcars were so full they did not stop to pick more people up. In addition, some intersections on Queen Street West were so jammed with pedestrians, streetcar and vehicle traffic was brought to a standstill. Crowds have been an issue since the inception of Nuit Blanche and hopefully the TTC has collected sufficient information to properly plan for next year. (BRENDA PETROFF, seconded by JAMIE BRADBURN and STEVEN MICHALOWICZ.)

Filed under: , ,

Report error Send a tip

Comments

  • http://www.twitter.com/vicdezen Vic De Zen

    I can say any event that is held at Yonge and Dundas would be difficult to go to twice. It is just so difficult to get there, stay there and leave, comfortably in any way. And yes a coordinated additional efforts with the TTC is always a must for events of this magnitude.

  • Karen Whaley

    I don’t know, I had a pretty good time this year! I thought the financial district worked really well as a backdrop rather than the University/Bloor area of previous years because there was so much more room. Yonge/Dundas was a nightmare for me, but there were so many people there who were mostly interested in a street party and they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
    I do have to agree with the Night Nav iPhone app complaint though. The feature where you could search for the closest projects was really useful, but finding something specific that wasn’t necessarily the closest was a pain in the butt. Also, it would have been great to have a map function that let you see the locations of all the projects in your immediate area so you could plan your itinerary.
    LOVED the Union Station sound installation. It was really affective and made great use of the space.

  • http://undefined Green Sulfur

    One of my favourite parts of the night was Manifesto’s exhibit/party on three floors of a house on McCaul. It wasn’t officially part of Nuit Blanche but it was better than most of the official events. For next year, Nuit Blanche should find a way to include/fund groups like Manifesto.

  • http://undefined sniderscion

    I agree with Miles-more large “canvas” projects like Wild Ride would be welcome. 10X10 booths in a parking lot are too inaccessible and not worth fighting through the scrum the get a glimpse over people’s shoulders of a canvas in progress for example. Ghost Chorus was good (after you found your way through the crowds in the dark; it could have been better with a visible pathway and possibly some discreet foot level lighting. I liked the way the events were grouped together this year as well; much easier to get around; much less time wasted getting from one area of interest to another. You can see the evolution; lets keep it going.

  • http://undefined Squeaker

    I’m happy to see Torontotist putting together some thoughtful suggestions about how to keep making the event work better (as opposed to just drumming up criticisms of what sucks). There are some interesting points here and yet most people don’t have any idea of the challenges and obstacles that event organizers encounter trying to execute something as big and participatory as Nuit B. Here are my thoughts on some of the suggestions:
    Think Bigger
    Large scale exhibits means more money and therefore less commissioned projects by the City. However, the 100+ Independent Projects involved create work for free – they can’t be expected to make bigger work or move neighbourhoods. Also, is bigger really better? Some of the smaller projects were amazing and much more creative than the big dollar spectacles.
    I do love the idea of harnessing all the people that are out… there is an insatiable appetite for people to interact with the art.
    Location, Location, Location
    Yonge-Dundas Square was not an art spot – it was simply an info centre and the info books said as much. it’s a shame that the square didn’t have art, but not all artists/ curators want to work there.. it’s sort of a panopticon of advertisements. I heard that the producers tried very hard to get access the video screens for the night and could not get the billboard people to agree.
    Density Is Our Friend
    This year all the commissioned pieces were moved together very close (into about 4 sq’ blocks) to reduce walking distance between pieces – moving projects any closer together would mean the crowd density would actually be dangerous – negative space has to happen as a crowd buffer as well as a sound buffer. The independent projects which stretch from Casa Loma to Distillery and Parkdale are creating their work to promote their own neighbourhoods and artists – they won’t move and most people don’t want them to. I find the satellite spots refreshing sanctuaries from the madness of Bay & King etc. Connecting areas with a route of projects is a great idea – however, passing through residential areas is a big issue with lots of citizens who don’t want Nuit Bedlam cruising past their front yards.
    Wayfinding 101
    It was the first year for the new app and I thought it was pretty damn good. Maybe I am better at directions than other people, but I think even a simple map is good… how much hand-holding do people really need? But that’s just me…
    Still More TTC
    More TTC? Well, if the street cars are packed every rush hour why would we expect them to move 500,000 people at midnight? I don’t think the TTC has enough money or even owns enough street cars to move that many people. Maybe people should pick one neighbourhood to enjoy or ride their bike?
    Overall, I think the event is a wonderful social, art and cultural experience. This event is no longer controlled by the city – it has a life of it’s own. Every year more and more unofficial artists just cook up their own ideas and launch them… I predict it will be more unpredictable in future years. It’s almost like New Years eve… you just need to pick one party and make your own fun – trying to get all over town in taxis to see 50 gigs just aint gonna happen.
    I wish it could last 3 days, but that’s easy for me to say since I am not an artist staying awake.
    Kudos to all the amazing people who busted their ass to make this Saturday night lovely.
    Peace.

  • http://undefined McKingford

    These are all very apt suggestions, and I think the only way to fix the Queen West streetcar problem (which seems to be a yearly issue) is to take the sensible step of closing Queen West to all traffic but TTC.
    One other point about TTC: I’m always the first and last guy to defend TTC against its myriad of criticisms. But running out of day passes (at all stations)? Epic fail, TTC. This is really incompetence of the highest order.

  • http://undefined Holden

    I suppose more and Y&D would be good but I would like to see it more spread out. The independent projects at Bloor and Landsdowne were surrounded by nothing. I suppose it’s a matter of just having more events which I’m sure has it’s own challenges.

  • http://undefined Apostata

    The biggest issue I had was line-ups which, by and large, is tied to the types of exhibits chosen for Nuit Blanche.
    Let me cut to the chase: what is the point of promoting an art installation to tens of thousands of people in which they must then wait, single-file, for their turn to interact with/experience it in a very small venue?
    This is, of course, inevitable in any kind of similar setup – say, the CNE…thing is, the CNE packs this into two weeks, not 12 hours.
    The sheer number of 2-city-block-long line-ups was ridiculous this year and probably turned as many people off as the lack of spectacle you mention @ Dundas & Yonge.
    What was the point of the FastWurms exhibit if you had to put your name on a list which was already impossibly long by 8pm? It’s counter-intuitive to say the least when, by contrast, you are advertising this to such a large demographic.

  • http://undefined tortish

    Good ideas in the original post.
    Overall, I loved the evening. Stayed out far longer than I’d planned.
    TTC streetcars along King were a nightmare.
    Subway was great.
    Props to the paper based guide which was incredibly well organized and easy to navigate. It was fun to thumb through whenever there was a queue, discussing with a neighbour or passing the time while sitting in transit.
    I wouldn’t have read every single description with the digital apps alone, though a few times, I wished for a quick link to google maps.

  • http://undefined LadyChesterwick

    Great ideas in the original post. Having been to Nuit Blanches in other cities, I have the following comments to add:
    1. There needs to be more thought put into where exhibits are hosted as far as the venue being able to add to the exhibit’s purpose vs. simply it being a logistical consideration. I think this was somewhat implied in the original post in the bit about integrating the cityscape as the canvas. I would like to be even more specific than that, however…
    For example, the French consulate hosted a viewing at the AGO’s theatre of silent films with live piano accompaniment. I thought it was one of the best exhibits that I saw but I think it would have added to the allure of the piece to have held the event at the Elgin or Wintergarden theatres, which are time capsules in and of themselves of a similar bygone era. Or if you wanted to make a real statement of stark contrasts, do it in the Scotiabank movie theatres at Richmond and John.
    2. Get the lines moving faster. Somehow, despite the massive throngs of people and the narrow streets and venues that are used for the event in Paris, the lines there moved much faster than what I’ve seen here. I honestly don’t know how the Paris organizers did it but it never felt like an amusement park line-up, nor did you ever really feel like a canned sardine. Things were set up so traffic through the exhibit spaces flowed efficiently.
    3. I definitely second the idea for an official event “route”. I would also add that whatever the official route is, they should close it off from all motorized traffic — it’s safer for the pedestrians and motorists involved. This would also help the TTC solve its capacity issues in that they could double up capacity on adjacent routes and can avoid the inevitable traffic jams. So if the official route is through Queens Street, the TTC would take their Queen streetcars and reroute them onto either Dundas or King and participants will have to walk the block/block-and-a-bit to get to their intended destinations along Queen.
    4. I would love to see the guide have a list of official refueling stops where you could grab a bite to eat at places that feature works by local artists. There are a lot of cafes, restaurants, and the like that display local art year-round and I’d love to see them more engaged in the event and rewarded for their dedication to Toronto artists.

  • http://undefined yxs

    I thought that the nuit blanche this year was great.
    Although the lines seemed daunting at first, I would prefer lining-up to ‘experience’ something over not lining-up and only seeing visual art. I think that this was the major improvement from last year to this one. Part of what’s so great about having art all night in the city is actually doing something different in these spaces and I think they were rather successful. I think it took some time for the nuit blanche curators to figure out this balance between visual and experiential but I think they’re on to it.
    Perhaps cutting one of the zones so that areas are denser with pieces would make it more interesting. Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t need maps/apps to figure out where to go next and people could just wander down the street and just stumble into different surreal environments, one after another.

  • http://undefined Ryan Coleman

    I agree with comments above about TTC needing to step up & the city needing to close some roads.
    Queen really should have been closed from Bay > Dufferin and next year they really need to find a way to tie the area between Bay & Trinity Bellwoods together.
    As for the TTC – why do they not get the notion of special event shuttles. They kept the 509 streetcar going all night (or at least planned to)… we got stuck waiting 45 minutes for a streetcar that never came. Only after one of our party literally had to jump in front of a moving TTC maintenance vehicle did we learn the streetcars were having power issues and buses would come “sometime”.
    I mean, how hard is it to have a handful of buses doing a constant loop from Union > Exhibition throughout the night. The TTC makes it sound as if this would be a herculean effort – what a joke.

  • http://undefined nealj

    Density is our friend is a key point – Johnnie hit it dead on.
    The first time I did the all-night thing was two years ago, and it was great because it involved a little walking followed by a little bit of art followed by some more walking and so on — there were no huge gaps (that were made worse by utter lack of Eastbound streetcars on Queen after 2).
    NB planners have made it explicit on their website that their goal has been to put everything closer together so you can see more… this causes a few problems.
    First is the point Johnnie raised about having long boring walks in between, which combined with overflowing transit that the “Still more TTC” folks raise, makes for a long uncomfortable awkward walk.
    Second – you have the same number of people spread out over a smaller area, which only magnifies the lineups. Say there are 1,000 people in a zone at any given time (there were likely many more) – if all 1,000 of them are in an exhibit area, there’s not enough room for all of them so they wait in line. If only, say, 700 of them are in the exhibit areas because 300 of them are walking from one exhibit to the next, lineups are reduced which, while not reducing the amount of time spent per exhibit, would reduce the frustration of being stuck in line, not to mention being more interesting.
    Finally, and I think the biggest victim here is this, the handful of independent projects (which seem to get further and further away or fewer and further between, one or the other, each year) will suffer. One of my favourite exhibits this year was Laundromat Kaleidoscope which was at a laundromat on Queen W, near virtually nothing else. I would have skipped it if even one streetcar had passed me going Eastbound between Dufferin and Spadina (grumble), but it was actually a really cool installation… and also virtually deserted.

  • http://undefined nealj

    While it’s likely impractical, I think closing Queen Street for that length is a GREAT idea — as long as they keep the streetcars running… eliminating the traffic might actually fix the timing problems too.

  • http://undefined jen_in_toronto

    The TTC has done Nuit Blanche shuttles between zones in previous years…I’m assuming from your comment that this year, that didn’t happen. Guess the 24-hour TTC is in place of that?

  • rek

    1. Fewer exhibits that require lining up. I really wanted to hallucinate at Holy Trinity, but wasn’t willing to spend the night in line.
    2. Fewer time-sensitive exhibits, and all time-sensitive exhibits should have a schedule posted so you don’t spend 30 minutes in line only to find the main event won’t start for another 2 hours. Arriving 15 minutes or 2 hours after it happened is also a downer.
    3. More interactive exhibits (even if interacting means milling around it, seeing it from different angles), fewer things on low-res video screens you just sit and watch on loop, or shuffle past as the line pushes you along.
    4. Bring back the environmental installations. What was this year’s Fog Walk?
    5. Do away with zones and take over a (decent sized) cluster or string of blocks instead. And shut the streets to all motor traffic (I’m looking at you, Bay Street).

  • http://undefined piccola

    I was disappointed by Queen West West most of all. For a neighbourhood that’s supposed to be all edgy and creative, it just looked like a particularly busy club night. I know there isn’t much room around there for large installations, but please come up with something better than human statues and fake award shows.