Julianna Yau’s blog

I hadn’t noticed this until one of my friends updated his Facebook status to “get a magnifying lens and read the quote on the back-left of any $20 bill. “Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?”" about five times within the span of 10 minutes.

The quote, according to another friend, is from Gabrielle Roy’s novel La Montagne secrète (The Hidden Mountain). The bill also features the artwork of Bill Reid.

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Our last stop was the House of Leaves, which was a recreation of Katherine L. Lannin’s home in an alleyway at Ryerson. She had wallpapered her home with pages from books, and was evicted for the fire hazard it posed. On the way to see it, we passed by a chess board painted on the street, and I was disappointed that there weren’t enough of us to play a game. In retrospect, I could have called out to other Nuit Blanchers to try to start a game, but I was too tired to have thought of that option at the time.

House of Leaves was a great last exhibit to see, because it was a quiet, reflective installation. Its tone and presence was entirely different from the duck pond. And although the pages were more accessible to visitors, and there were many pages “for the taking”, the very nature of the display did not invite the same type of interaction as the duck pond. People were more interested in seeing and reading (and, in my case, smelling…from a distance) the pages than in taking pages off to bring home.

In retrospect, I wish I had taken many more pictures than I had (for example, I don’t have one of the coin-operated “robot”). But I think I had a much better time being a part of Nuit Blanche than merely documenting it.

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As we were leaving to see House of Leaves, we were approaching a coin-operated “robot”, and I  couldn’t resist dropping all of my change into the bucket for a little performance.  I felt invigorated and like a child again, being given the chance to be playful and spontaneous in a way that we rarely allow ourselves (at least I, myself) to be. En route to to Queen Station, I saw one of my favourite unintentionally public art displays—an art-induced traffic jam. I do feel badly about the people trying to get through the intersection, but it was elating to see such an obvious impact to the way people move an interact because they were out to see art (and…also…I can’t believe there are some people crazy enough to drive through downtown Toronto during Nuit Blanche).

So, after passing more performance artists, we took the subway to Dundas Square. 15 Minutes was on intermission, so we headed for the House of Leaves. En route, we stopped to ask where people were getting rubber ducks, and were told that there was a duck pond at Gould Street. Teresa and Adriana almost ran for the pond, and I was delighted to see so many people crowded around the display and wading into the pond to play with the ducks, despite the ice-cold water. Justin was brave enough to wade into the pond, but his trip was cut short by an onlooker who was chastising everyone for “destroying the artist’s work”, claiming that the artist was just here and had been telling everyone to stop taking ducks. She refused to believe that the program said that people were encouraged to go into the pond, and continued to yell at people until her friends started to try to push her into the pond.

Honestly, even if the artist had not intended for people to take ducks home with them, I don’t have a problem with this type of activity. It was all in good fun (versus vandalism), where the public was simply wanting to interact with the display and take a piece of the work home with them. Is it still theft? Yes. And although good intentions doesn’t invalidate the act of theft, the coordinators of Light Up the Night did invite people to hunt the proverbial sitting ducks. After Steroscope, the duck pond was the most interactive and playful display we encountered last night.

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The next stop was the Steroscope display by Project Blinkenlights, which was my raison d’être for Nuit Blanche. We took the subway to Osgoode, and I could feel my heart start to flutter when we caught glimpses of it through the trees as we approached. We went up to the overpass to get a good view, and it was every bit as phenomenal as I had hoped. We arrived just in time to catch a bit  of the live performance involving a dj playing music to what was happening on City Hall.

I was so excited that I was actually having difficulty breathing, and was completely awestruck by what I was seeing. I don’t think there’s any way to describe what it felt like, watching all of  the windows in City Hall act as a single unit to display pixelated images. It was particularly amazing because I knew it took them two weeks of working at night to install the drop sheets over the windows and place lamps, each connected to a wireless dimmer switch, behind the drop sheets. For a geek like me, knowing that the central computer system allows me to play arcade games by calling into a phone number, and that I was able to upload animations to the computer, was all the more thrilling. I feel breathless just thinking about the experience—the exhilaration can only be parallelled by the time I went parachuting (not tandem).

After meeting up with Justin, I managed to talk to one of the Blinkenlights guys, who was very friendly. I must admit I was completely starstruck, and Adriana did much of the talking for me. The Blinkenlights guy mentioned that the display would be up for two weeks until October 12th, and that pretty much pushed my excitement over the edge, knowing not merely that I had the chance to return to see it some more but, more importantly, that it would be there through to the election. We (and by “we”, I mean Adriana) told him about the election and what our Prime Minister was doing with arts funding, and he told us “Fuck the Prime Minister”. We giggled like schoolgirls and Adriana told him how important it was that their display would be at City Hall leading up to the election, and he said “Good! We like to sit on people’s faces!”.

While wandering around Nathan Phillips Square, I heard nothing but statements of absolute awe and excitement from the people at the event, with people calling friends to tell them how amazing the display was and how much they would enjoy it if they were present.

It took me a while to connect to the games (partially because the live show had the phone lines closed, partially because of the demand for the games after the live show was over).  For a while, I was being persuaded by my friends that it wasn’t interactive, but I knew that it was because I was familiar with the project even before I knew they were participating in Nuit Blanche. After much persistence, I was able to dial in to play Space Invaders, and scored a puny 17 points before the dreaded GAME OVER screen loomed over me.

After wandering a bit more in Nathan Phillips Square, midnight rolled around and we proudly held up our ART signs for 4 minutes and 33 seconds in homage to John Cage’s 4 minutes an 33 seconds of silence and in support of art & culture in Canada. I was shocked that we were the only people there participating in the protest, but also felt empowered because we were getting much attention. Some people were very obviously humoring us, but I received several nods of comradery from people passing by.

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Our first stop was someone, a printing press tucked away in Cabbagetown. My friend Adriana was in heaven, pouring over the little lead letters and learning about how the illustrations were prepared for printing. They also allowed visitors to take one of the sets of prints they were creating, with the option to leave our information to return for the print after the event.

We wandered through a bit more of Cabbagetown, stopping to listen to a reading of Cabbagetown by Hugh Garner. We also caught the end of a very cute short film featuring dancing notes juxtaposed with the soundtrack, and also watched as the giant outdoor screen came falling down. Luckily, no one was hurt because the closest row cleared the screen by a few feet and was vacant. Adriana and I rushed to help them right the screen, and hold it while they re-secured the frame to a tall, industrial tripod and brought in more sandbags to weigh it down. By the time we left, the hand for Red Door was already well along its way.

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Amazingly, this year was my first time at Nuit Blanche. I hadn’t originally planned on going, because everyone I know who went the first and second years said that the first year was fantastic and the second year pretty much bit. But Gordon Hatt, the curator of Zone A and the new executive director of CAFKA, is now working in the same building as my studio and showed me all the stuff he was bringing in for the event. I was pretty much sold as soon as I found out Project Blinkenlights was coming, but was curious to see some of the other things too.

Nuit Blanche is also a particularly important event for the arts community this year, because its success brings art & culture to the forefront of peoples’ minds as election day approaches. And from the hordes of people who attended the event last night, I dare Harper to continue to claim that art doesn’t matter to “ordinary” Canadians (or, perhaps, that “ordinary” Canadians are in the majority, or that it’s desirable to be “ordinary”). Although probably not all Canadians, the estimated 1 million attendees clearly disagree with Harper.

The night started with my friend Teresa taping a glow-in-the-dark ART sign on the back of her vest in preparation for the 4:33 minutes sign of protest scheduled for midnight. With her dog in tow, we made a quick tour of Church street, seeing the beginnings of the ethereal forest and some performances happening on the closed street.

We returned Teresa’s dog to her apartment and, almost immediately after returning to the streets, were approached by a family who was attending Nuit Blanche for the first time. They had seen the ART sign on Teresa’s back, and decided to ask us for directions on how to get to some exhibitions. We directed them to the downtown core, near the Eaton Centre, where many of the events were centralized, and they seemed very enthusiastic about the event (and had even driven downtown and parked somewhere nearby).

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• Harper
• That not everyone who is eligible to vote has acceptable governmental ID to vote. (variations: not being able to afford a passport so they can vote; not being able to afford, or otherwise need, a driver’s license so they can vote; it’s easier to buy cigarettes and alcohol than to vote)
• Election day is scheduled for the day after Thanksgiving.
• Some ridings just had a by-election—will people go out and vote again?
• “I’m voting for x because that’s who I always vote for” (variations: “I’m voting for x because I’ve voted for x since y.”; “I’m voting for x because I’ve voted for x since (2008 – y).”
• “The US election has more of an impact to us.”
• “z is worse than the Conservatives, you know”
• “What about when z was in office and [insert stuff they screwed up]”
• the possibility of the Conservatives getting a majority government with a 30-something percent majority
• that we’ll probably be screwed either way

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I’m feeling like I’m all over the place recently (probably because I am).

I heard back from Andrew Telegdi’s office this week and we’re trying to arrange for a meeting soon. I’ve also contacted Cathy MacLellan for a meeting, but haven’t heard back yet. Along with Cindy Jacobsen (whom I’ve already met), they’re really the only candidates in my riding I’ll be trying to meet. I have no interest in wasting my time with the Conservative party, and I’m too busy to try to meet with the candidates for the other parties (which I doubt have a realistic chance at being elected).

You’ll probably mostly be seeing mini posts like this and bookmarks of other sources for the next week or so. I’m going to be very busy creating new sculptures, coordinating the upcoming events for Globe Studios and jump-starting an exciting new venture.

Other stuff happening:

The Writers Guild of Canada is organizing a pro-arts rally in front of the Canadian Broadcasting Centre at Front & John Street in Toronto on Wednesday, October 8 from 11:30am to 12:30pm. A PDF of the flyer can be found here.

The Department of Culture has also extended their Gone in 30 Seconds video contest deadline to 6pm on Oct 5th.

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On September 15, Facebook was dotted with profiles, sans profile pictures. This was done in protest of the recent arts funding cuts which were discovered, without warning, consultation or announcement, to show how the loss of arts & culture would mean a loss of cultural identity for Canadians.

I participated in this protest, and will join those who are remaining faceless until the election, such as Chris Foley. Being faceless for a day was very difficult for me, because I use the profile to showcase my recent sculptures, and my sculptures are part of who I am. Instead of seeing one of my creations, having to look at the ghostly silhouette of a nameless person was more than unsettling.

What was most telling of how intimitately connected our identity is with art & culture is the variety of Facless For the Arts profile pictures created by users so they can show they are faceless specificially in support of art & culture.

So as part of my work to raise awareness about the impacts and implications of the arts funding cuts, I will be faceless not merely in Facebook, but in all my online social networks.

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This is in response to the article Make the case for culture to ordinary Canadians, artists told from the CBC.

I’m disgusted by the fact that politicians believe we need to make a case at all, and that they don’t understand why we’re outraged by the arts budget cuts.

The spending on the arts was approved by Parliament, and so were the programs receiving the funding and the amount of funding being allocated to the programs.

The budget cuts were done in secret, without approval by Parliament, without consulation with the arts community, without clear, specific and direct explanations on why the particular cuts were made, without formal announcement to the public or the arts community, and without clear and direct information on where the excess of $60m was being redirected.

If the government really cared about arts & culture, they would already be aware of the many reports and studies on the importance of arts & culture. So-called “ordinary Canadians” live and breathe art & culture all the time; if they are not happy with the way the money is being spent on the arts, it’s either because of a lack of understanding of the jury process or because we need to improve the process with consultation with the arts community. I know of no other sector where funding is cut, without consultation with the stakeholders, because “ordinary Canadians” or ideologically-threatened policymakers don’t like the product. How do we allow cigarettes to be freely marketed, but arts funding to be cut at the whim of a minority government?

So, to those who need a case presented to them, here is a short list of resources which show why art & culture is important:

• Hill Strategies Research
• Cultivating Demands for the Arts (pdf report)
• Cultural Value and the Crisis of Legitimacy (pdf)
  
• Art classes improve diagnostic skills of medical students (CBC article)
• Canadian Tourism Commission
• Status of the Artist legistlation
• Valuing Culture: Measuring and Understanding Canada’s Creative Economy (report)

Please post any other resources in the comments.

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