As new media artists, we have to be conscious of the the fact that most of our tools were not created for us, and are subject to market forces that have nothing to do with our art.  Like photographers who’ve based their practice on Polaroid materials,  we’re sunk if a manufacturer decides to stop producing our platform.  Now, the sky is hardly falling yet, but a recent piece of business news caught a lot of people’s attention: Microchip and ON Semiconductor are attempting to buy Atmel.  Atmel makes the chips which are the basis for the  Arduino, used by countless artists. Microchip makes the popular PIC microcontrollers. It’s entirely possible that Microchip will continue to produce the Atmel line, or they may fold it, as Chrysler did to the the AMC line of cars when they bought American Motors in order to obtain the Jeep brand. Either way, it’s probably a good idea to take a look at your tools, and ask yourself what would you do if they suddenly went extinct.  You could buy old chips on Ebay as people do with SID chips and Nixie tubes.  (Of course, when a commodity becomes scarce, other economies begin to kick in.)  Or you can port your project to a new platform. This is not always easy with microcontrollers, particularly if your project uses hardware features of the chip such as A-D converters or PWM.

(image by slworking2, used under Creative Commons license)

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This might not work….I’m not sure why everyone else’s map is so fancy. I think we’re hitting a lot of the same spots, and I have similar sentiments to Dana about this whole thing, and the next day I have to be in Oakville to appreciate art all over again! Maybe you can visit me in Oakville (but it won’t be pretty) but no stalking tonight! I’m not signing autographs on Nuit Blanche.

Here’s my itinerary for Nuit Blanche:

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See Dana’s post below for a good introduction to our routes and picks.

I’ve done my map a little differently. No zones - just a single direct route from one site to another.
I’m starting really early because the Jonathan Meese performance starts at 6 pm. From there my plan is to do the shortest distance between sites possible and slowly make my way west. Forget the Distillery and forget anything you could see any other time (except for Beatrice’s Centre for Student Affairs).

My map is (lightly) annotated and colour coded. It’s all explained on the side there.

Hi folks — yes, I’m the Director/Curator here at IA, but I’m also an artist and art-lover. With Nuit Blanche, we’re all already stressed out here because there’s so much to see. Well, I’ve planned my route — thanks for the great idea, Alex — and I present for you my map and my top choices (actually, an A- B- and C-List for what to check out, priority-wise). Whatever you take in Saturday night, I hope you have fun.

My route:

I plan to begin at InterAccess. Partly because I’m working a shift that night, and helping set up. But it’s sort-of a hub for me, and it’s also on the way home. And if I decide to do the Gladstone brunch, then it’s also not far. So I will begin at Zone C, then go to A and B. My “Must See” A-List is marked by red pins, my “If There’s Time” B-List choices by yellow pins, and my C-List “If I miss it it’s not the end of the world” picks are in blue. Check out my entire route on my public google map (with annotations), and/or read the highlights below.

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ZONE C

I’ll be starting Zone C early-like, around 7:30pm or so. Hopefully a friend will come along. This area makes an easy loop from IA, through Liberty Villiage, back to Queen and Gladstone, and back to IA. I have three top picks here, plus InterAccess:

1) InterAccess presents Evan Tapper, in partnership with the Koffler Centre — High Holiday Office Hours with the Almighty Creator of the Universe. Atone for your sins as G-d holds court *live* in the IA studio in this period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Also check out the excellent exhibition, Beatrice’s Centre for Student Affairs, or, How I learned that my mother was right about making art in a prairie town during the rise and fall of grunge music. Curated by Jennifer Chernaick, Assistant Curator extraordinaire.

2) Head on down to East Liberty and Lynn Williams Street for Michel de Broin’s waterfall. This piece looks beautiful and spectacular — the kind of thing that should be on during Nuit Blanche. De Broin’s urban installations turn everyday scenarios into fantastic stop-in-your-tracks events.

3) Burning down the house — Philly artist Matt Suib lights up the Toy Factory lofts at Liberty east of Hanna, with a projection that looks startling on paper. I hope its as evocative up close.

4) Brendan Fernandez is next, in the parking lot between Mowat and Fraser, south of Liberty. Fernandez’ monument with shipping containers should prove to evoke reflection and amazement.

On the way, check out the football field at Lamport Stadium for Jon Sasaki’s wacky mascots (I’m visiting this on Alex’s recommendation — I trust Alex’s opinion. Otherwise…. mascots?), and the Drake for David Rokeby, who *always* gets interactive art right. Other spots on the way are highlighted on the map.

ZONE A

Zone A is waaaay too big. Crazy big. I won’t get here until after 1am, cos my IA shift is from 11pm-1. The only thing I might squeeze in ahead of time is 401 Richmond. Regardless, this is where a bicycle will comein handy.

1) Blinkenlights by Chaos Computer Club. Subtle Technologies Festival tried to bring these guys to town years ago, but they were too expensive. It took the City and big bucks to pull this off. Kudos to Gordon Hatt (and IA member Matthew Williamson!) for making it happen — it’s at City Hall.

2) Massey Hall has an installation by BGL. I don’t know much about the Drop Ceiling they’ve created, but I saw their stuff at the National Gallery, and it’s amazing. I’m sure this will be just as wonderful.

3) Adam David Brown created a nice night-life scene with his Time Piece, appropriate for an all-night event. I’ve enjoyed Adam’s work for a few years now, since he graduated from OCAD’s Sculpture/Installation programme. A smart young artist, Brown also seems to tip his hat in his own unique way to his former-Prof, Ian Carr-Harris’s light works.

4) Bay and Wellesley holds Tom Bendtsen’s Conversation #2 – a tower of books. If it looks anything like the picture, WOW.

Other highlights include: Rob Hengeveld’s dumpster concert at Dundas and Bay, IA member Mitchell Chen and Brad Hindson at the AGO (see previous blog entry here!) and Jillian MacDonald’s Zombies at College Park. Other notes on the map, yo!

5) I also need to note the intervention “Ordinary People” which is time-based, and takes place all over, at 12 midnight. It’s a call for action to all ordinary people from ordinary people, as a response to Stephen Harper’s comments about just who is interested in art. At midnight on Saturday, October 4th, this collective asks you to STOP for 4 minutes 33 seconds and hold up a piece of paper displaying the word ART. Ordinary People includes students from the Ontario College of Art & Design and the internationally renowned artist ORLAN.

ZONE B

Okay, first — WTF. Zone B is an extension of the massive Zone A. Can we have a little differentiation here? Nevertheless, some good stuff. Most notably:

1) Noam Gonick’s Commerce Court, at 25 King Street West and Jordan Street. I love stand up comedians and office board rooms. Say no more.

2) Barr Gilmore’s Benefit of the Doubt at 10 Court Street. Looks. Brilliant.

3) The Bar Mitzvah Machine at 401 Richmond! Wow. Get a Bar Mitzvah AND atone for your sins all in the same night. Crazy mishegoss, this Nuit Blanche stuff!

Other stops include: Kelly Mark’s Horroridore at Union Station, Rita McKeough’s work at Esplanade and Yonge, and if you’re at 401, visit Prefix ICA for the Laurent Grasso. If you happen to have a bicycle and are feeling energetic, you might also want to make the trek to the distillery for our friends at Le Labo — my counterpart at Art Engine, Ryan Stec, has a performance. 55 Mill Street.

I think I’m actually excited this year about Nuit Blanche, because it’s the first year I’ve been able to take it in. In 2006, I was stuck inthe hospital. In 2007, I was stuck at InterAccess the whole night signing out bicycles (which was a rush in its own way!) but this year, I actually get a chance to see some art.

Enjoy yourself, and if you want some food and drink and a friendly pit-stop, be sure to say hi to your friends at InterAccess. Jennie’s there early on, Board members Mike and Julie around 9, I’m 11-1, Jess will be there around 1-3, and Alex has the graveyard. Happy art walking and biking!

I’ve been obsessed with noodles recently, because of Rosh Hashanah and kugel. And I’ve also become obsessed (re-obsessed, actually) with RSS, now because of Google Reader. Google’s sharing feature makes me want to blog, or blog more. So here, because I love noodles, math and sharing, is an awesome link via kottke.org to this video. If anyone knows more about the origin of the footage (more than YouTube provides), *please* leave a comment!

From Mitchell:

Brad Hindson and I have created this installation piece for Nuit Blanch, and I must say that I employed a few tricks I picked up at some InterAccess workshops (But please don’t let Mr. Cruikshank take me to task on my shoddy circuit design! I’m still new!) Anyway, thought you might dig it. It just got posted at BoingBoing (booyeah!) over here:

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/01/dream-of-pastures-a.html

There are a few notes on the design and construction up there.

And the original video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgrqBx1rUZA

Art Fag City linked to this article by Marisa Olson a couple days ago. The article, and the continuing discussion on AFC, are really interesting.
Anybody want to start an IA surf club?

The highest voltage most people are likely to encounter is the 117 volts AC from the wall socket.  While it can knock you across the room, or even kill you, it’s not much fun to play with. It won’t even jump across an air gap.  To make decent sparks, you need voltages in the thousands of volts. (The dielectric strength of air is about 30kV/cm) You can generate surprising voltages just by shuffling your feet across a carpet- the shocks that you get from your fingers in the winter are a result of your body being raised to a potential of a few thousand volts! You’re not likely to impress anyone much by doing that, however. You need to build something cool.  The easiest high voltage project is probably the Jacob’s Ladder. It works on a simple principle- the high voltage strips electrons off the gasses in the air, ionizing it, which makes it more conductive. The heat of the arc pushes the ionized air up the widening gap, and so the arc is able to follow.  A neon sign transformer is the best way to make a Jacob’s ladder-you want one of the old ones, which are actual transformers, not the newer solid state ones. They can be tricky to find, unless you want to spring for a new one from a sign supplier. Another possibility is a oil ignition transformer-as more houses convert to gas heating, these show up now and again.   Another, more challenging project is a Tesla coil.  This is essentially a tuned air-gap transformer that can produce some truly stunning voltages.  Care must be taken with the design to ensure good results- the tuning can be somewhat tricky. You’ll also need high-voltage capacitors, which can be as simple as aluminum foil glued to sheets of glass!  Very large Tesla coils have been made; you might want to check with your neighbours before firing up something like this.  When I was in high school, we had one that was about 6 feet high, turning it on was always a special event.
A simpler, but also impressive project is a Marx Generator.This uses a series of capacitors to step up a high voltage to an insanely high voltage. Here’s a plan to build a small one. Here’s a slightly bigger one. And here’s a really big one.

As fun as all this is, remember that all of these projects are quite capable of killing you, and should not be undertaken lightly. You are responsible for your own actions.

High voltage does not always have the good manners to stay in a wire- even if you’re not grounded, the voltage may decide to take a path through you just to see where it goes.  Don’t work alone. Be careful to always work with one hand behind your back (to minimize the chance of the current going through your heart), use “dead man” switches, make sure capacitors are completely discharged before touching them, and watch out for ozone, especially if you are asthmatic.

Tesla Coil group on Flickr

Mike’s Electric Stuff

Powerlabs High Voltage Research

Teslathon 2008

Here are some of my favourite pieces of online art in terms of creativity and execution:

Zoomquilt2

is a collaborative art project based around creating a seamless continually zooming image of a fantastical environment. You have to see it to fully understand…

Ecodazoo.com

is Roxik’s latest masterpiece- a wonderful organic virtual tree with many bizarre animal characters that live in it.

Amanita Design

Are producing some really beautiful online worlds. Simple interactivity coupled with detailed hand crafted environments and a sprinkle of humour is a powerful formula which Amanita has refined again and again. I highly recommend checking out the concept art for their upcoming game Machinarium.

Levitated Design & Code

Open source experiments into artificial life, and biomimetic programming which embody a consistent aesthetic flavour.

National Digital Media Day
Thursday September 25th @ BelleVue Square in Kensington
7pm - 11pm

On September 25th, thousands of interactive digital media professionals across the Nation will participate in events to voice their vision for the future of Canada’s creative economy. These events range from installations to conferences, and all revolve around strengthening Canada’s digital media sector amidst growing global competitiveness and the imminent federal election.

In Honor of National Digital Media Day, the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab has joined up with other local Professionals to spread the word, and we are hosting an impromptu picnic in BelleVue Square [parkette in Kensington Market] this Thursday from 7-11pm. We’ll bring some lemonade and snacks as well as some of our most recent projects including SKRTCH based on GRL’s L.A.S.E.R. Tag and a project so new we haven’t given it a name yet which involves Skype and a megaphone.

We invite you to join in the discussion and to bring your own projects!
(there is Wifi in the park.)

For more information:

National Digital Media Day: Facebook group
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8657402681
National Digital Media Day: Networking site
http://ndmd08.ning.com/