Nuit Blanche 2011 coverage

Suited up for the future.

http://www.kindleproject.org/blog/2011/10/07/feature-on-flightpath-toronto/

How can a public spectacle help to shape our ideas of how we interact with nature, space and cities? Can it really offer a tangible route for creative alternatives to transportation, civic engagement and an investment in how we live with a less harmful impact on the natural world? These questions have been on my mind for years, and in the context of Kindle Project, it has recently become relevant. As we set out to explore the most current incarnations of unique collaborative efforts on the blog these past two months, we came across one such effort that got our attention. Flightpath Toronto took place on October 1 as a part of Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, where for one sleepless night the city was transformed by hundreds of artists for the sixth annual sunset-to-sunrise celebration of contemporary art.

Sunday Digest – XCamp

Xcamp for XClinic (jargon alert)

On February 25th we had a changecamp style unconference on establishing guidelines on both the porting of Natalie Jeremijenko’s environmental health clinic project, XClinic, to Toronto, and the development of a start up kit to help spawn other XClinics in other cities.

The event was very successful, with “many gifts” in the room, and fantastic discussion.

Basic bullet points.

XClinic thesis – Health is a factor of our environment, not just our genes and individual behaviour.

XCamp issues

– The scalability of an art/design environmental project to larger audiences, esp. in the absence of direction from Natalie Jeremijenko

– The goal of XClinics: quirky art (potentially meaningless) projects , or effective (potentially boring) projects? I say neither and both are necessary and sufficient.

– Related to above, we had a lot of conversation about whether there was a formula for the NJ magic. I think there is, but I also think it would be meaningless to try and reproduce it.

– Ibid, we also talked a little about metrics. How would we gauge success of a project.

For more information on XClinic in Toronto, subscribe to this blog or visit http://www.manara.ca/xclinic/

Event photos here.