Nuit Blanche 2009: A Night of Interactive Art

It's that time again. Time for Nuit Blanche. For one sleepless night experience the city transformed by close to 500 artists for Toronto's fourth annual sunset to sunrise celebration of contemporary art. Discover art in galleries, museums and unexpected places. From churches and grocery stores to chimney stacks and bus stations, choose from 130 projects and chart your own path.

And it's all free.

Here's a few installations that caught my eye:

Ghost Chorus – Dirge for Dead Slang: sights and sounds of Ghost Chorus – Dirge for Dead Slang rise up into the trees and into the ears of onlookers, rubberneckers and passers-by. These ghostly apparitions raise their voices to the driving melancholic baseline from the beyond to revivify outmoded slang of the long and recent past. See the dead rise to life! Hear the dead rise to life! Sing. Sing. Sing.

Ghosts not your thing? What about witches?

Witches' Cradles: Stepping into the cathedral-like space, visitors encounter a line of “witches' cradles” suspended from the ceiling. Originally used to punish those accused of witchcraft in the Middle Ages, these gently swaying pods were later reclaimed by witches and used to induce prophetic visions. One by one, audience members can enter and experience the cradles.

inSANITY: Figurative sculptures and audio environments bring to life past artists from the former Toronto Hospital for the Insane, 1870-1940.

Mobius: Deja Vu, paranormal activity, and seemingly co-incidental events: all will all be explained. This is a journey into the centre of a time paradox known as a "Mobius Event". Presented on four screens, each offset by 25% of the duration, key elements of the paradox temporarily interact with each other as past, present and future intersect in an infinite loop.