Nuit Blanche Reunion music event

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  • Nuit Blanche Reunion music event

    Reunion 2010 is part of the 5th annual all-night long arts festival, Nuit Blanche starting at 6:57pm on Oct. 2 (www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca).

    The event revisits the chess games between composer John Cage and famous artist Marcel Duchamp and his wife Teeny Duchamp held at Ryerson in 1968 -- one of the biggest crowds in Canadian history to watch a chess game!

    In order to explore the artistic lineage of both Cage and Duchamp, several artists who have knowledge of these two figures have been asked to either perform as chess players or to present related works.

    As in the original performance, it is a musical event that relies on chance, "purposeless play". The basic configuration is a wired
    chess board on stage with each square having a light sensor on it. The moves of the players will trigger a number of live electronic performances by several electronic musicians and artists. The chess position will be filmed by an overhead camera and projected onto a large screen.

    Beyond the artists who will be playing the board, at 10pm there will be a 2-hour game between IM Lawrence Day, Toronto Star and CFC columnist, and IM Alan Savage, chess journalist and Duchamp scholar, and at 5 am between two-time American Women's Chess Champion, WGM Jennifer Shahade (she has written game analyses for Duchamp's matches) and GM Pascal Charbonneau (2002 and 2004 Canadian Champion). These latter two will also play "wine" chess at midnight, where the pieces are different kinds of wine.

    Between 2:30 and 5 am local chess players and audience members will be invited up to make a move on stage, assisted by chessplayers from the Chess Institute of Canada. This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to use this board and to contribute to a musical event by making a chess move. Depending on the number of interested players, there may be speed games. You may get a chance to play one of the masters. I'm also looking for a couple of volunteers to help escort players up to the board on stage.

    Big article in the free weekly paper, Eye:
    http://www.eyeweekly.com/arts/nuit%2...eridan-reunion

  • #2
    Re: Nuit Blanche Reunion music event

    Is chess art?

    "Not all artists are chess players, but all chess players are artists."
    Marcel Duchamp

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    • #3
      Re: Nuit Blanche Reunion music event

      Originally posted by Erik Malmsten View Post
      Is chess art?

      "Not all artists are chess players, but all chess players are artists."
      Marcel Duchamp
      Did Lawrence win?:)

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      • #4
        Re: Nuit Blanche Reunion music event

        Originally posted by David McTavish View Post
        Did Lawrence win?:)
        Yes, his opponent booked up but Lawrence played a line which he has been using successfully against computers. But this wasn't a tournament game, the setting was casual and their moves contributed to changes in the music.

        Their 2-game match was at the peak of audience numbers, over 1,000 people (The event had over 12,000 spectators). It was initially starling when some of the audience, mainly in the balcony, cheered a move, every move. They could see the hand go over the pieces that the overhead camera projected onto the screen at the back of the stage. Later on there was security on the balcony to stop drinking.

        Pascal also had a plus score against Jennifer, but, at 5 am, played in front of a small audience. They played several games at fast time controls and also played a 15-minute chess960 game. The moves of their wine game at midnight were only known to themselves, but they enjoyed the occasional drink of a chess piece. Pascal said it was like playing blindfold chess.

        Over 40 people came up from the audience to play blitz on the board. Thanks to the chess volunteers who assisted the players up to the stage: Ted, Hugh, Mike, Brett and others.

        It was a strange event.

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        • #5
          Re: Nuit Blanche Reunion music event

          Hi Erik,


          It was definitely a strange event, but it was worth it as so many people came in and got some exposure. The first part which I walked in half-way through (wine chess) was difficult to follow. However the audience involvement was quite colourful. 6 of us from Hart House Chess Club came back at 4:30am for that, and we watched Haizhou get a free lesson on stage ;-)
          This Nuite Blanche was far more interesting that last year, in part because of chess !
          Thanks to all who made it possible,


          Alex F.

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          • #6
            Re: Nuit Blanche Reunion music event

            Chess Life for Ocotber 2010 on page 3 has information about the Toronto event and check Jennifer's Shahade blog for a trip report!
            A computer beat me in chess, but it was no match when it came to kickboxing

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            • #7
              Re: Nuit Blanche Reunion music event

              I was always a big Duchamp fan. Last Spring there was a lull in chess action so I fit him into a Star column:
              ~Toronto Star, 2009.5.23:
              The summer exhibit at Art Gallery of Ontario entitled "Surreal Things" includes one artist of special interest to chess players. Marcel Duchamp (1883-1968) was an imaginative innovator whose originality had been demonstrated by his introducing moving subjects into cubist still life. His most famous painting "Nude Descending Staircase" (1911) was bounced from its first Paris exhibit for breaking the Cubists' conventions. But the public loved it and Duchamp moved on to successfully explore playful Dada and spooky Surrealism. Then, just as the price of surreal art works soared in the mid-1920s, Duchamp dumped art for chess. "It has all the beauty of art and much more," he explained "It cannot be commercialized." With the surrealists one can never be quite sure when they were serious but evidently Duchamp was. He played in the Paris Championships and the French nationals qualifying to their Olympic team four times between 1928 and 1933. He also wrote a
              chess column. Truth be told, at his peak he probably wasn't more than 2300 by modern Elo ratings, but he could rise to the occasion as in holding the draw against the legendary Frank Marshall at the Hamburg 1930 Olympiad. Another quote: "The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem... all chess players are artists." One wonders what Duchamp would have thought of chess-boxing, the most successful creation of modern Dutch surrealist iepe (sic, no capital) Rubingh...~
              So I was invited to this strange Reunion performance art piece. The board makes weird sometimes repetitive sounds, not quite music but not random either, rather determined by which squares were crossed. To get the actual moves from Duchamp-Cage would probably require retrograde analysis of the recording and Cage's codes. But here is the second Day-Savage as I recall sort of anyway~
              1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bd3 cxd4 6.O-O f6 7.Bb5 Bd7 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9.Qxd4 Qb6 10.Qf4 f5 11.b3 Ne7 12.h4 c5 13.Rd1 Nc6 14.Qg3 O-O-O 15.c4 d4 16.Nbd2 h6 17.h5 Nb4 18.Ne1 Rg8 19.Ndf3 Be7 20.a3 Nc6 21.Rb1 a5 22.Nd3 Be8 23.Qh3 g5 24.g4 Bd7 25.Bd2 Rdf8 26.Qg2 Qc7 27.b4 fuzzily** ??...27...cxb4 28.axb4 a4 29.b5 Na5 30.Nb4..1-0 (time)

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              • #8
                Re: Nuit Blanche Reunion music event

                I took 100s of photos, but only have space for 20 on my free flickr chess photo page:


                http://www.flickr.com/photos/82698797@N00/

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                • #9
                  Re: Nuit Blanche Reunion music event

                  Also the fun video:

                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl512YhyoiI

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