GET AMPED UP FOR downtown Kitchener’s free fall festival of pop-up art, performance and placehacking! We’re pleased to announce the 2017 featured artists and programming for #NightShift17…
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1 \\ Night\Shift 2017 collage party
In partnership with Open Sesame ‘s exhibition of local artist Catherine Mellinger ’s collages from the book “Deep Salt Water” (BookThug, 2017), NIGHT\SHIFT kicks off its 5th anniversary instalment with a FREE & fun collage party on Thursday, November 2nd!
2 \\ Night\Shift placehacks KWAG
On the evening before Night\\Shift 2017’s main event (Friday, Nov 3rd), help the festival invade Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery ‘s space and pack your eyes & ears with with music, film, mixed-media + beer & popcorn.
3 \\ Night\Shift 2017 live music showcase
An all-over-the-map lineup of performers, from spooky looped violin and vocals to heavy duty flow to an off-the-beaten-track four-on-the-floor trip to dance into the wee hours with:
respectfulchild
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You’ll Never Get to Heaven
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ANAMAI
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Cadence Weapon
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Coy Haste
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4 \\ VRLENS monitors
Unleash your eyeballs on a kaleidoscopic, psychedelic peep show. Viewers are invited to a futuristic fantasy land while also harkening back to the golden era of circus sideshow peep boxes.
5 \\ Space Mother
Night\Shifters will find SPACE MOTHER suspended in mid-air, a holographic alien head with music and effects to flesh out the otherworld she invites us to inhabit.
6 \\ LUCID
A therapeutic universe of sound and light driven by brainwaves. LUCID is an immersive sensory environment which uses a mind-machine interface to algorithmically create a personalized palliative experience for users in real-time. Each combination of light and sound is engineered and modulated in response to the brain activity being monitored.
7 \\ The PoeTree
Branch out and connect with strangers through the act of writing. Shawn DeSouza-Coelho’s artificial willow tree explores the power of words shared between strangers.
8 \\ Forbidden Mass
A spooky, sombre song sung by four voices in a semi-secret spot. As an encore to their rain-soaked Night\Shift 2015 performances in Gaol Garden , the Katherine Road Quartet returns to unleash even more Renaissance polyphony on the downtown core!
9 \\ Resist Psychic Death
The ever-inventive Ellie Anglin is crafting a huge banner out of felt, tassels and sequins! The work — an homage to the title of a 1992 song by feminist punk band Bikini Kill — riffs on the use of banners as protest art while elevating traditionally feminine creative disciplines and perceived tacky, cheap or kitschy materials to fine-art status.
10 \\ OK Sure
A visual celebration of the joy in community, friendship and companionship. Artist Tee Kundu moved to Waterloo more than four years ago. While finding a sense of community has proven a fleeting pursuit, they continues to say yes and make friends with neighbours, colleagues and familiar faces.
11 \\ Fibre Funhouse
A gigantic, fractured-personality fort made out of fibre arts magic!
12 \\ The House of Fun
Inside and around the FIBRE FUNHOUSE, get swept away by Green Light Arts . Listen to stories, learn songs, watch and contribute to the unfolding of a roaming, improvisational theatrical trip. Characters you encounter will be inspired by the layers of the FUNHOUSE, and animate it with their instincts and your interaction.
13 \\ Marble Alley
Be mesmerized by huge marbles that turn a DTK cranny aglow. Here’s something you never find in downtown Kitchener’s forgotten pockets: three-foot marbles that come alive, coaxed by the magic of traditional lighting effects.
14 \\ True North Mural
A live painting experience in Goudie’s Lane, presented as part of Communitech’s True North Waterloo conference.
15 \\ Megaphonic
Make noise to trigger the movement of projected geometric patterns. Step up to the speaking tube and let the sound of your voice be seen, not heard. Whatever vocals go into the tube will appear as projected animations, with variations in pitch and amplitude altering their geometric patterns.
16 \\ Duet
8-bit proof that rhythm is a basic unit of communication. There are two drums in a space, but they make no noise. Instead, they register the action of festival-goers hitting their skins through simple projected animations. In DUET, Daniel MacPherson poses the question: If we swap sound for light, can we still communicate as strangers pass in the night?
17 \\ Offerings
A looping, horror-film triptych installation amped up by live drone music. This distillation of folk-horror filmmaking lets go of formal narrative structure and instead focuses on fetishizing texture, atmosphere and ambiance. Torin Langen’s aim is to hypnotize viewers, enlisting them as participants in the surreal on-screen performances.
18 \\ Selectively Selective
Aiming to explore how the brain filters basic information in the modern age, SELECTIVELY SELECTIVE is a participatory art exhibit created and conducted by Spool Oops. Festival-goers will be encouraged to contribute to a series of simple, timed drawing sessions of everyday objects from memory.
19 \\ P.U.D.D.L.E.S
These trails, clusters and outbursts of psychedelic soft sculpture are breadcrumbs from a long-term project by artist Susan Coolen, which aims to recast natural, urban and industrial puddles found in downtown laneways, city lands and other properties. P.U.D.D.L.E.S. blends grit with beauty as it explores the biomorphic shapes of pooling water and the myriad surface colours and reflections.
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We can’t wait to share these 2017 artist programming with you. In the meantime, why not add #NightShiftWR on Twitter , Instagram or RSVP on Facebook .
