Zone A offered many popular commissioned project exhibits, but even more independent projects.
     There were a few let downs, such as the well-sought-after “Rabbit Balloon” that had appeared in the Macy’s
     Thanksgiving Parade in 2007. It didn’t seem to have the same effect inside the Eaton Centre this year.
     There was, however, much else to make up for it, including the very interesting Beautiful Light: 4 Letter Word Machine created by D.A. Therrien.
    This amazing light display, suspended 65 metres in the air between the new City Hall buildings, displayed various words and symbols, each consisting of four characters. A deep, robotic voice occasionally read out the symbols, everything from “Life” to “ΔILM” (“Pie Ilm”).
    Another exhibit that received much attention was SPEED SHIFT by Erwin Redl. This project aimed to critique the amount of advertising in our society. Two long strips of white LED panels were attached to a wall of advertisements in the Eaton Centre, with wave patterns moving through them toward the centre of the hallway.
    In another exhibit, Ice Queen: Glacial Retreat Dress Tent, artists Robin Lasser and Adrienne Pao turned a tent into something wearable.
    With the help of Cara Spooner, a Toronto choreographer, the ice queen wearing this dress tent became animated, displaying a critical view on global warming and its effects on our environment.
   A multi-part independent project by Ryerson’s faculty of communication and design, entitled Light Up the Night, also turned out to be very impressive. One section, “InCENTive,”
created by the School of Image Arts, attached people’s wishes to pennies, then attached these numerous pennies together. They hoped to change the view that pennies are worth almost nothing, to show people how much such a small amount can really mean.
   Outside, an interactive game, “MultiTORCH,” also by the School of Image Arts, used the patrons of Nuit Blanche as participants; they were given LED torches to manipulate images
on a projected screen.
   Zone A at this year’s Nuit Blanche certainly didn’t give any of the viewers a break as their views on society, the environment and their own lives were examined under a critical eye, exhibit after exhibit.