Nuit Blanche asks us to confront a timely paradox. Can we solve it?

Nuit Blanche, Toronto’s all-night arts festival that took over the city this past weekend, asked artists and audiences to confront a timely paradox: in our hyper-connected world, why are we seemingly so disconnected?
To answer that question, we must first consider what “connection” even means. Technologically speaking, we’re more connected than any other moment in history. So many of us are always online, able to connect with almost anybody else at the touch of a button. 
Yet, at the same time, we’re more isolated than ever. Loneliness is a global epidemic. And Toronto is often considered one of the loneliest cities in the country. 
This tension, between these two opposing propositions, was at the heart of this year’s Nuit Blanche, which centred on the theme of “bridging distances.” As I meandered across the city on a five-kilometre trek, joined by thousands of other Torontonians, I witnessed how artists came to unpack these ideas. In small art galleries and at outdoor sites across the waterfront, whipped by a crisp breeze that cut through the cool fall night, a cavalcade of spectacular installations invited audiences to reckon with the notion of connection and disconnect. 
For some creators, connection is a purely physical concept. In “Distance to Mars,” at HTO Park West, artists Siqi Wang, Xinyue Gu and Yi Zhang created a sprawling light installation displaying data from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that indicated our real-time distance relative to Mars. That staggering number — more 180 million kilometres when I stumbled across the installation — certainly places everything Earthside into perspective. 
Other installations viewed connection as something more abstract. “The Probability Engine: Atlantic Overturning,” by micha cárdenas and the Critical Realities Studio, bridged distance — and ignorance — through the understanding of our natural world. The twisting blue sculpture, at 339 Queens Quay W., depicted the Atlantic Ocean’s delicate climate systems and how they can be impacted by climate change.
At the 401 Richmond cultural hub, Vladimir Kanic’s “Living Algae Cyborg” looked at connection through a similar lens. The installation, surrounded by glass tanks filled with its namesake organism, allowed viewers to interact with a giant green algae through an artificial intelligence interface. 
Conversely, if building connection means fostering mutual understanding, then disconnect is the lack thereof. And one of Nuit Blanche’s most cheeky installations explored this idea of disconnect through the use of two anthropomorphic digital road signs, bickering with each other across a stretch of the waterfront. Artist Jon McCurley’s “Arguing Signs” was a delightfully hilarious work, with spectators standing in between the signs and watching as their argument unfolded. 
Some of the most moving installations from this year’s Nuit Blanche, however, were those that looked at connection through the personal sense, as a basic human need. Some, like “7222 miles” at the Bentway, took on an achingly symbolic meaning. Conceived by Sarah Keenlyside and an LGBTQ+ refugee known simply as “E.K.,” their glowing path of candles underneath the Gardiner Expressway was meant to symbolize the ongoing struggle for freedom that LGBTQ+ refugees continue to face. 
Back at 401 Richmond, Olha Tkachenko’s suspended sculpture “Leleka” was also wondrously symbolic — a stork in flight, adorned with ancient Ukrainian symbols, representing migrants forced to flee their homelands. 
But it was not until the end of my journey that I found what, to me at least, was the installation that best reflected this year’s theme. Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster’s “Closer Together” was an interactive installation that featured two grandstands placed opposite each other. Spectators sat on the bleachers, looking down at a runway as others walked through, greeted by boisterous cheers from the crowd. 
“That gave me the serotonin boost I needed,” remarked one woman, after walking through the installation. 
I’ll leave you with one more image from the evening that so beautifully captured this spirit of connection. And it wasn’t even a proper installation at all.
Near Harbour Square Park, dozens of strangers gathered to play with a large parachute, raising and lowering it in the breeze as others ran through it, chortling at the activity. Most were grown-ups. Many probably haven’t touched a parachute like this once since their elementary school phys-ed classes. But it’s hard to picture a scene more demonstrative of the power of communal gathering and public art to bridge all our distances.