| Abstract: | As the character of aesthetic experience becomes more complex and multi‐faceted, exhibitions become interfaces that actively mediate between physical and invisible realities. Challenging more conventional forms of exhibition‐making, this situation becomes exaggerated when producing affective exhibition experiences in non‐conventional event‐structures and site‐specific contexts. This article explores how digital mediation and spatial practice can be productively integrated into new program architectures, specifically the type of civic media spectacles associated with the cultural phenomenon of the White Night or Nuit Blanche. The co‐authors engage with the social and cultural dynamics of such “performance spectacles” through the twin perspectives of curator and exhibition designer, which informed the realization of exUrbanScreens, an image‐based arts and new media festival that operated as a multi‐site, distributed nocturnal event. Practice‐based insights give perspective on audience participation in this type of exhibition event and the social dynamics of civic engagement in this particular form of program architecture. |
