[-empyre-] NIGHTSENSE

[Renate Ferro]

Dear Jim and Jennifer,
Thanks so much for giving our readers and subscribers the url to
NIGHTSENSE on the displaycult website
http://www.displaycult.com/exhibitions/NIGHTSENSE.html

Your post brings up so many issues that I want to ask you about but I
think I'll just begin with two basic ones.  Many of our international
subscribers may not know the Toronto Nuitblanche is.  Can you give us
a bit more information? ( How did you come to curate the event? Who
funds these spectacular projects? Is there an all call for artist
participants or do you mine them from your own networks? Who in the
world orchestrates the masses of people?  Given the duration I figure
that is more of a arts festival? Do you think that NIghtsense is
Toronto specific? Could it migrate to another location or would that
be impossible? )  Well too many questions but if each of you could
take a few of these and tell empyre more about the event then perhaps
we can wrap our heads around the statement I pulled off the
DisplayCult website.

"DisplayCult is a curatorial collaborative that aims to rethink
exhibition prototypes by amplifying sensory aesthetics, interrogating
the diverse histories of display, and engaging with the performative
aspects of presentation."

Looking forward to hearing more about Nightsense and how do you
characterize the word "curating" in your own practices.  Thanks so
much.  Renate


On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 2:22 PM, Jim Drobnick <displaycult at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Dear Renate and Tim,
>
> Thanks for inviting us to participate in this month’s series of
> conversations.
>
> To start one thread, we thought we would begin with a relatively recent
> project of ours, NIGHTSENSE, that formed part of Toronto’s Nuit Blanche in
> 2009. We are revisiting this project at this time because we are editing a
> special issue of Public magazine on the topic of “Art and Civic Spectacle.”
>
> NIGHTSENSE featured visual and extra-visual artworks within the shadowy
> world of Toronto’s financial district. Addressing the spectre of market
> destabilization, the invisible transmission of broadcast signals, as well as
> hauntings from a locale where early Toronto history has been all but erased,
> these projects to engaged the audience in both critical and ludic
> participation. NIGHTSENSE invited a reconsideration of the normal sensory
> economy by intensifying the subtle but powerful links between bodies,
> aesthetic perception and shifts in capital. (Images can be found
> at http://www.displaycult.com/exhibitions/NIGHTSENSE.html)
>
> The overall context in which NIGHTSENSE appeared was Nuit Blanche, which we
> hope list members have experienced or read about. These events last all
> night long in a number of cities worldwide, and typically involve thousands
> of visitors (1,000,000 or so in Toronto for each of the past couple of
> years). Artists produce large-scale performances and interventions that
> engage, critique and reconceptualize the urban context.
>
> Our issue of Public will address ­­­­the dynamics and significance of these
> popular mass events. How do the monumental artworks of city-wide exhibitions
> relate to the diverse histories of spectacle? What are the opportunities and
> challenges of such events? When audience levels reach into the hundreds of
> thousands, what issues are raised about spectatorship and participation?
> What impact can curating have on mass subjectivities?
>
> We’re interested in starting a discussion based on these questions, and any
> others that may arise from the list. We look forward to hearing your
> thoughts.
>
> All the best,
> Jennifer and Jim
>
> Jim Drobnick and Jennifer Fisher
> DisplayCult
> www.displaycult.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre



-- 

Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office #420
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
      http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net

Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre