Thanks for visiting us at Nuit Blanche. We hope you enjoyed our interactive multi-disciplinary art experience.
If you missed it, we invite you to visit the Plant A Seed photo and video gallery to get a sense of what the experience was like.
Plant a Seed is a multi-disciplinary art installation exploring the theme of “Breaking Ground”
The city’s theme for Nuit Blanche 2023 is Breaking Ground. The origins of the phrase Breaking Ground are rooted in farming and the act of planting. Centennial College’s School of Communications, Media, Arts, and Design will explore the theme of “Plant A Seed” to produce an immersive and interactive multi-disciplinary art experience that explores the questions…What do we as a community want to grow? In viewing the site of the school as a community garden, how are the conditions for individuals to be able to fully blossom? Is our collective soil rich in the necessary nutrients? Plants have the ability to produce oxygen, which is consistently bringing life to our world. Plants are estimated to account for approximately 80% of the planet earth’s total biomass. Botanist David Beerling describes plants as a “geologic force of nature.” Similar to a student in college, plants absorb resources and interact with other organisms to support their growth.
Plant A Seed is a collaborative production by current students, alumni, and faculty and will animate the Story Arts Centre Campus at Centennial College. Inspired by contemporary artists who work with seeds and plants such as Ai Weiwei’s “Sunflower Seeds” (2010), Kandis Williams’s “Nay, but tell me, am I not unlucky indeed, / To arise from the earth and be only a weed?...” (2020), and Tomas Saraceno’s “In Orbit” (2013-2015), Centennial College will build on these roots to further explore what it is to Plant a Seed. Visitors can enter the Virtual Garden, contribute to the collective planting, and explore the utopic digital environment created by the Game department. The Fine Art department will unite budding artists who will be exhibiting a large-scale installation. The Broadcasting department will provide an experience where participants gain perspective from the point of view of an insect when adventuring through a green screen garden and witnessing the massive scale of everything living within. Perennial Pictures is a photography exhibit and collection of film shorts and experimental video that will be looping on display throughout the campus sites over the course of the night. Although Nuit Blanche is focussed on brevity and the events of one night, the impact of a seed being planted is a commitment for a long time. Centennial College will experiment with aspects of the programming that can bear fruit for the future and demonstrate the impact of the seed on the larger community.
2023 activities:
Location: Various Installations Throughout the Campus
An exhibition of photos, short films and videos curated around our theme, Plant A Seed.
Location: Main Foyer
A large blank paper canvas will be available for all visitors to write or draw their answer to the question "What Do We As A Community Want To Grow?"
Location: Main Foyer
A collaborative performance by students in our Dance, Music and Theatre programs. The performance will be six acts inspired by the life and growth of a single seed. These performance pieces will be inspired by summer, spring, winter and fall as they relate to the life of the single seed.
Location: Main Foyer
Experience DJ John Caffery's soundscape, exploring gardens, forests, jungles and music inspired by plants.
Location: Room 191/193
Contribute to the collective planting and explore the utopic digital environment created by students and graduates in our Game - Development program.
Location: Library Meeting Room
Four students from our Fine Arts program will create an opportunity for visitors to witness the evolution of a mural being created in real time. The mural will be inspired by the quote, “They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.”
Location: Main Foyer
Fine Arts Studio Alumni Sara Vargas Nessi is the artist behind the "Light Source" mural installation, which will be highlighted along with a making of video displayed as part of the Perennial Pictures installation.
Location: Television Studio
The Broadcasting department will provide a multi-sensory experience where visitors will enter an immersive world of sound and video and be transported into a lush, meditative garden that will encourage them to recognize those who have planted the seeds of creativity or inspiration in their lives.