Nuit Blanche – science picks

Nuit Blanche, the yearly all-night art festival, is coming up again this weekend. I had a look at the schedule to see if there was anything science-related in there. It’s slim pickings, but here’s what I found:

Through a Glass Darkly
All night, various projects.
This one is probably the most related to science of any of the exhibits. Plus, I know people who are participating in the music projects, and they read the blog, so clearly this had to go at the top of the list =)
Science: astronomy, biology, general science

Beautiful Light: 4 LETTER WORD MACHINE
City Hall
Light performance every 2 hours starting at 7PM (every odd hour, but the last one is at 6:30 AM, not at 7)
According to the description, four-letter words are projected on city hall. Some of the letter combinations include “DNA sequences”. Four letters, DNA? My guess is that is will just say ACGT in various combinations, and not actually be the sequence of something. But anything projected on city hall is always cool.
Science: Biology

12 hours of power
Interactive! Participants are invited to ride stationery bikes, which will power lights on a fountain all night long. This sounds like it’s going to be one of those Nuit Blanche projects that’s either hugely popular or one that breaks at 9 PM and just makes people grumpy when they travel all the way over there for nothing. I’m hoping it’s the first.
Science: Physics, alternative energy

How To Win The Lottery
“an all-night lecture performance that will demonstrate a variety of scientific and intuitive techniques geared to winning the lottery.”
Science: Not sure. Probably math/statistics and/or psychology.

Ice Queen Glacial Retreat Dress
It’s a dress tent, and the project has something to do with fashion, dance, and global warming.
Science: Environmental science, geology

Vodka Pool
It’s a giant pool of vodka, if it doesn’t evaporate before the night is over. “As viewers gather around a reflecting pool of alcohol situated on the pristine floor of the atrium [of a bank building], they can ponder the volatile and symbolic qualities of 80-proof vodka. Liquor and liquidity bear more than passing associations to banks and money.”
Science: chemistry

And now I’m going to stretch towards the social sciences, just because I really like the description of this exhibit, and because it’s one of the most experimental of the night.
Please Do Not Disturb
Interactive! “By choice Skeena will try to live a normal life in the space ‘behind glass’. The project is inspired in part by Minik, an Inuit (Eskimo) boy who lived with five others on display at the American Museum of Natural History in 1897. During the performance the artist will invite the public to engage her through various media while she remains enclosed”
(Social) Science: anthropology

I plan on attending a few of these during the course of the night, as well as several even less scientific exhibits. Here’s my itinerary. If you’d like to meet up or find out where I am that night, send me an e-mail at eva.amsen [at] gmail.com and I’ll give you my cell phone number.

Speaking of phones: For those of you with iPhones, Nuit Blanche has released an app that allows you to plan your night and interact with the festival during the night. It only works on the iPhone, and not on iPod Touch, which I found somewhat upsetting.