Electronic symphony composed for Blinkenlights in Toronto

If you were standing outside at Nathan Philips Square an hour ago and was wondering what the cool music was that was playing, here's a link to satisfy your curiosity (and ears!): http://kraftfuttermischwerk.de/stuff/blinkenlights-symphony.mp3 It's an electronic symphony commissioned specifically for this year's Nuit Blanche in Toronto, and the Project Blinkenlights "Stereoscope" installation in particular.

Project Blinkenlights is in Toronto. Tonight!

Some people must be reading this blog after all. Either that, or I'm just psychic. (I'm quite unscientifically discarding the random coincidence hypothesis.) I've been a fan of Project Blinkenlights since I first heard about it a few years ago on a report on BBC World, and about 6 months ago I mused on this blog (here) about how Toronto's financial district could use some high quality live building animations of the calibre that only the German Chaos Computer Club seem to be able to do. Well, just a few minutes ago, when casually perusing the web site of Toronto's Nuit Blanche to figure out what I might what to go out to see tonight (2008 marks Toronto's 3rd Nuit Blanche event), I stumbled on the entry for Stereoscope -- what they are calling Toronto's Project Blinkenlights installation. It's going to be at City Hall, which happens to be a stone's throw from where I live. (It might already be live, as it's gotten dark outside as I am typing this!) To think that I might have missed it, and I live so close...

Wistful in Toronto.

"Toronto is a metropolitan, multicultural, dynamic city in which people are notorious for talking wistfully of living somewhere else." [source] This rings quite true for most of the people I've encountered during my years in this city. But I wonder if the city itself is the cause (e.g., Too many potholes on the street? Not enough subway lines for efficient transport? Too mush slush in winter? Not enough opportunities for creative types?), or maybe it's the culture, or as some might argue, the lack of a clear and dominant one? And is it truly a wish to live somewhere else permanently, or does Toronto simply inspire us to go out and travel the world?

Two things that make living in a big city so great.

1. Lots of convenient sources to go buy fresh fruits and vegetables. There's something quite inspiring when browsing through the piles of colourful items -- partly a reminder of what beautiful things the earth can provide us, but for me the appeal is less philosophical and more gastronomic; I taste all the selection on display with my eyes, pondering what great meal/salad/dessert/snack concoctions I can come up with. It not only inspires the stomach, but also the brain. I come home from these encounters with fresh produce with the urge to do something creative or constructive, and not just related to food!

2. The after-work rush downtown. Not the morning rush, when many might be tired-eyed, harried, and dreading the workday ahead. Rather, I like watching people leave work downtown after 5PM. Some look relieved, some look happy, quite a few slow down their pace to enjoy the afternoon sun, many are reconnecting with friends, and even some couples emerge, holding hands while walking home. It is at this time of day that I most enjoy going to the local coffee shop and finding a seat at the window so that I can observe my favourite subjects walk by. I suppose that I'm partly attracted to watching this crowd as I'm not part of the "corporate" world myself, so it's almost as if I'm the visitor at the zoo enjoying the view of the "wildlife" passing by outside. And they're quite a handsome bunch, though of course I'll admit that I have a strong bias for the female of this species. In fact, I really like catching them smile. Smiles, as you might know, are quite rare in an urban setting. However, they seem to occur with increased frequency during this particular time of the day. If one is lucky, one will catch a woman smiling or laughing with her friends, or on the phone, and randomly turn her head towards you, the attentive observer behind the window. For that brief second, before her head turns back, you can share in her moment of happiness.

1968 - 2008: The anniversary of the fist salute

With the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing just days away, I was reflecting today on the Games that took place 40 years ago in Mexico City. Not being born at the time, when I think of those Olympics, only one moment stands out for me: the silent protest of the athletes at the medal ceremony for the 200 meter dash. It's a well known image, Tommie Smith (1st) and John Carlos (3rd) silently raising their fists during the playing of the US national anthem, symbolizing freedom and power over racism, head bowed down in prayer. I just bought a T-shirt online with stylised designs commemorating this event; I plan to wear it during this year's Olympics as my way to honour the message of those men.

Although its not well known, and hard to see from the images, both Smith and Carlos went shoeless on the podium to represent poverty. In addition, Peter Norman, the 2nd place winner from Australia, supported their protest statement by wearing a pin from the Olympic Project for Human Rights, the group the American duo was representing. Apparently, it was even Peter Norman's idea that the two Americans share the pair of black gloves; Tommie Smith wore the right, John Carlos the left.

There's was a certain elegance about this simple, hastily planned statement. Each had one square meter of real estate to themselves, that for one brief moment had the attention of the world. Sadly, the protest had negative repurcussions for the trio; most notably for Smith and Carlos who were expelled from the Olympic Village later that day and received death threats upon their return to the USA. (Norman, by comparison, was "only" prevented from participating at the following 1972 Summer Olympics, despite qualifying.) Though the gesture was meant to raise attention to the existence of inequality and to promote equal rights for minorities worldwide, not just in the United States, it was taken by many as symbolism related to aggression or of extremist factions of the Black Panthers, a US-based group which often had a reputation for violence at the time.

Interestingly, the raised clenched fist has symbolism for a wide range of groups to express solidarity, strength or defiance.