HEX - Illuminate the Night

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Please note: in accordance with new public health orders, Nuit Blanche Winnipeg events are currently being adjusted and rescheduled as stand-alone events happening at different times over the course of Culture Days, which runs now until October 25th. As such, the information on this page may not be up to date. Please check back soon for updated event details, or contact the organizer directly for more information.

This event will not be taking place on Saturday, Sept. 26 - check back soon for an update.

A black hexagon surrounded by a white, glowing circular perimeter. Each side of the Hex emits droning, pulsing sounds at regular intervals.

As you approach the Hex, you will notice the black circle surrounded by an illuminated border, symbolic of our necessity at this time to remember to keep distance and the darkness within the circle gives the viewer the uneasy, uncertain feeling of what might happen if we all don't keep the invisible barrier between us at this time.

The Hex, standing 12 feet tall is an inverted trapezoid with six sides. It exudes emotionless, robotic ideas in the viewer yet also feelings of strength and stability because of the shape. The Hex will play two "songs". The sounds will encourage the listener to explore every side of the Hex because each speaker will emit a different set of tones. The first song is a synthesized version of Handel's Sarabande in D minor from the 18th century. An imposing 4 minutes that will call to the passersby to take notice. Then, the Hex will play a soothing, ethereal 25 minute song called "Harmonices Revoco." It brings peaceful feeling to the listener and will reassure the people that the Planets will keep spinning and we will all get through this strange unprecedented moment in history. The Hex will repeat this performance every hour of the evening for a total of 6 performances each lasting 30 minutes. When not emitting sound, the Hex will continue to be lit by the illuminated border and be a very striking object to behold.

-Sarabande was a dance condemned in the 17th century for allowing the participants to get too close. A very current sentiment in 2020.

-Harmonices Revoco is a completely original composition created in 2018. It won best soundtrack at the Milano Mobile Film Festival.

-Each side of the Hex contains a hidden speaker, the sounds of the performance changes as you walk around it.

The project will utilize outdoor space, with capacity limits and physical distancing measures in place. (Hand sanitizer will be available on site.)

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Organizer

Illuminate the Night - Sine Language: Tim Connell, Jeff Bergman, Paolo Gasdia

Each year, an Open Call is held for artists to propose pieces that will enhance the audience experience of Nuit Blanche Winnipeg through the Illuminate the Night program. Projects are selected by a jury of artists and art professionals and are featured in Winnipeg’s downtown core.

This is a call inviting artists working in all artistic mediums to submit projects- performance artists, installation artists, textile artists, graphic designers, media artists, architects and general creative thinkers – with a performance, exhibition or installation that will enthrall, excite and possibly introduce Winnipeggers to something they have never seen or experienced before.

About the music:

HARMONICES REVOCO

This is not a traditional song. It is structured according to math. Each collection of tone sounds when the planet it represents enters another moment in it's orbit. Middle Age seers and astrologers discussed the Music of the Spheres since the times of the Pythagoreans. It wasn't until 1619 when Johannes Kepler published his opus: Harmonices Mundi, that anyone tried to draw the definitive conclusion regarding geometry, astral phenomenon and musical ratio.

This song takes Kepler's music, fully intact, and uses the ratio of each planet's orbital period to guide when each tone should chime. It also uses the same math to determine the correct pitches for the two unknown planets at that time(Uranus and Neptune). The ever present Sun provides a drum track based on its wobbling caused by the enormous gravity of Jupiter (Jupiter pushes the Sun off its Barycenter).

Sine Language took all this data and added the necessary palette of an artist to decide what you hear and when. Somewhat like traditional mixing techniques.

SARABANDE by HANDEL in D Minor:

(wiki)

The dance may have been of Guatemalan and Mexican origin evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced with a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance called zarabanda is first mentioned in 1539 in Central America in the poem Vida y tiempo de Maricastaña, written in Panama by Fernando de Guzmán Mejía. The dance seems to have been especially popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, initially in the Spanish colonies, before moving across the Atlantic to Spain.

The Jesuit priest Juan de Mariana thought it indecent, describing it in his Tratato contra los juegos públicos (Treatise Against Public Amusements, 1609) as "a dance and song so loose in its words and so ugly in its motions that it is enough to excite bad emotions in even very decent people." A character in an entremés by Cervantes alluded to the dance's notoriety by saying that hell was its "birthplace and breeding place" (in Spanish: origen y principio). It was banned in Spain in 1583 but was nevertheless still performed and frequently cited in literature of the period (for instance, by Lope de Vega).