Toronto+Vancouver City of Labyrinths Project

Pedestrian Sundays – Blackout Anniversary Car-Free edition.

August 16, 2009, 12 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Streets Are For People present Pedestrian Sundays marking the 6th Anniversary of the Blackout.

For the sixth anniversary of the memorable day when we all realized that we consume too much, we will celebrate by turning the lights out!

All acoustic music, kid-powered fun, and community meals are what make remembering the blackout such a delight.

• http://www.pskensington.ca/
• http://www.streetsareforpeople.org/blog/

This pinwheel design is painted on a tennis court surface in the middle of a playground in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

As a game – Four people, at their own entrance, race to the centre where they must leave by another route without touching anyone.

First one out wins.

This afternoon in Kensington Market on North Augusta Avenue, a re-inspiration of this pin-wheel labyrinth design will find its way on to North Augusta Avenue.

And pedestrians, four at a time, will be invited to play The Game.

Beyond sunset, the pin-wheel will be illuminated with candlelight luminaria to mark the sixth anniversary of the 2003 Blackout.
More Photos

By Thom Hamilton, Last 100 Days Photo Project

August 14th 2003 45 million people on the eastern seaboard of North America had their lives go dark. Everyone has a slightly different way to remember that day, I tend to have very fond memories.

Never in my life have I seen community come together like it did that night, neighbors talking on the street, hundreds of people in parks simply laying down looking up at the stars, giving strangers rides home, checking on elders. All of this with out instruction or the use of mass media, it came natural.

Last night there was a small celebration to mark the 5 year anniversary of the date on Ossington Ave.

” HiMY SYeD – Toronto City of Labyrinths Project ”

Sometimes I do wonder how much more we would connect if every once in a while the power did just go out?

As part of the ongoing Toronto City of Labyrinths Project, you are invited to walk a Giant Candlelight Luminaria Labyrinth slightly hidden somewhere along Ossington Avenue.

If you discover the secret location early enough, you can help light up the many many many many candles.

Blackout Party – Friday August 14, 2009

28 venues from Queen to Dundas on Ossington Avenue, 8 p.m. – 11 p.m.

No lights, no mics, no amps, no lack of good food, drink, music and conversation.

Re-live the great time Toronto had the night of the blackout of 2003. Share memories, make new ones. More Photos

Today was our first real summer day, heat and humidity wise, yet I hadn’t created any labyrinths on the beach this season.

At Woodbine Beach, using a fallen branch as my brush of choice, I drew a three lane, four circuit classic labyrinth. More Photos

The Grange Park Labyrinth,

Looking south towards John Street, Downtown Toronto.

Growing up in Toronto, one invariably will travel the subway system. For years, just east of the Victoria Park station, I would spot this wading pool in the park officially known as Prairie Drive Park but most people think of it as the south end of Warden Woods.

I always thought of the many thousands of people who look through the window of the subway train, and see this empty circle of concrete.

In May 2007, I finally got around to painting a labyrinth there. The circuits are white and I used a thin paint brush. Those choices made it less easy to identify from the distance of a speeding train what it is than I would have liked. More Photos

Following creating the labyrinth in the wading pool in Christie Pits Park over the weekend, I found myself thinking about creating a more permanent labyrinth in the Kensington Market neighbourhood.

I have been painting labyrinths for most of the Pedestrian Sundays for the past 6 years, but they are on the streets. With wear and tear from vehicle traffic, they don’t have the permanence that a car-free location can have.

Wading pool still being top of mind, I biked to the Market, eyed the wading pool there and spent time dowsing around where the entrance might be. I did my usual step measuring by shoe length and oddly realized both the Bellevue Square and Christie Pits Park wading pools are about the same size.

The above photo is from earlier in the day, on Simcoe Day Holiday Monday. I was quite beat from the day before and spent triple the time simply chalking out the design.

Shortly before I began to paint, Dylan, from spacing popped by to check out the progress in person. He was rather amazed to learn the length in and then out of the labyrinth verges on walking a kilometer and a half. More Photos

The Christie Pits Park Wading Pool Splash Pad Labyrinth is now done.

The circuits are painted in azure blue and royal purple with 10 undefined rectangular spots for future artwork, designs, secret messages or whatever. I doubt I will do anything more with this one, so hopefully someone will fill in the empty spots with some wonderful unexpectedness. More Photos

This is the first labyrinth I had painted since before the TOStrike began near the end of June. The Christie Pits Park wading pool was renovated just in time to coincide with the beginning of the TOStrike.

A new splash pad feature has been installed by the private park contractor. It’s a red button thing that kids can press, and for anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes in length, like magic, water gushes into the air from the four or five hidden water jets.

A new green metal designed water fountain also replaces the old school pebble design. It sorta matches the metallicness of the splash pad red button thing.

The above photo shows the labyrinth painting in progress from Saturday afternoon.

Elsewhere in the Park, the garbage was being removed from the ice rink. The rink had served as a temporary garbage drop-off and open air landfill. The Friends of Christie Pits Park had opposed the use of any part of the park as a temporary dump site. More Photos