Night Equals Day, 2008/2009 - Adrian Blackwell

Council chambers, Toronto City Hall,

Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3-4, 2009.

Filmed in Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood from sunrise to sunset on October fourth 2008, Night Equals Day is being projected in City Hall’s council chamber from sunset to sunrise one year later.

The film rotates at the intersection of Sackville and Oak Streets, at the boundary between the neighbourhood built in the 1950s and the construction site of the new buildings which are replacing it. For Nuit Blanche the projection emphasizes relationship between this site, a residential neighbourhood, and the space of municipal decision making in the council chamber.

The film was shot at one frame per second with a 35mm camera mounted on a motorized tripod head. The camera rotated one degree every second, turning one full rotation each hour, capturing twelve daylight panoramas from 7:00am until 7:00pm. The installation is governed by the simple mathematical logic of shutter and pan speeds and the symmetrical relationship between the time of filming and the time of projection. It is intended to raise questions about the temporality of urban renewal and the equality between successive forms of the city’s fabric.

On October 3 and 4, 2009, the projector will rotate in the center of the council chamber, projecting the film across its seats and walls, at the same speed that the camera rotates through the space of the Regent Park within the film. In this way the site will be frozen in place, mapped onto the surfaces of the room.

Film commissioned by:

Liason of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto

Credits:

Ben Donoghue, Charles Bagnell, Karl Reinsalu, Lianna Arwen Hillerup, Bill Cardinal, Dan Young, Vanessa Lam, Daniel Grant, Raj Nandy, Aravinth Vince Kesavamoorthy, Catherine Rankin, Emmanuel Kedini, Tyrone MacLean-Wilson, Alexi Manis, John Rodgers, Gene Mastrangeli, Deluxe, Niagara Custom Lab, Ray MacMillan, RED*D*MIX Rentals, Whites, Regent Park Focus, Toronto Public Housing Corporation, The Daniels Corporation, Canada Council for the Arts, National Film Board of Canada, Cinematheque Ontario.