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Event Details
Saturday, Sept 22
8pm-1am
918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education
North of Bathurst Station
Facebook RSVP
*** This is a 19+ event. Please bring ID! ***
The Hand Eye Society Ball is an annual celebration of contemporary video games and playful media from Toronto and beyond, and a fundraiser to support our local arts non-profit’s year-round activities. Our fourth fancy video game party features an arcade exhibit, live music, food by Death In Venice, drink by Steamwhistle, a Silent Auction, and a mysterious meta-game involving Second City improv performers.
Our last three events — at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2014, the Masonic Temple in 2015, and again in 2016 — have sold out before the day of reckoning, so don’t delay in purchasing tickets! If you want to stay updated or share this event with others, subscribe to our e-mail newsletter, Facebook group, and Twitter.
We regret to inform the community that this venue is not wheelchair-accessible due to many stairs. If you are unable to participate in the Ball due to this barrier and wish to give feedback, please contact info@handeyesociety.com.
!!! MYSTERY MYSTERY MYSTERY !!!
Every 400 years, the Hand Eye Society’s four ancient Houses compete for a chance to curry favour with the mysterious powers of an eldritch artifact: The Instrument. Said to be able to grant wishes and wealth beyond reckoning, the spirit that dwells within is capable of great feats, but at a price… “Feed me, and you shall be rewarded.”
During The Night of Four Houses, players acquire points in the form of playing cards, while the House Champions engage in hourly duels for the rapt attention of the audience. Known to its initiates only as The Game, this arcane system has been the arbiter of power for millennia, as the inner factions of the Hand Eye Society vie for control over the secret levers of the world.
This weekend, The Instrument beckons you to discover its secrets. Play games, cheer on your Champion, and bring glory to your House. Will the song you hear be one of triumph or defeat?
!!! GAMES GAMES GAMES GAMES !!!
Cathode Mark 1
Ryan Mason / Toronto, Canada
Coming holiday 1983, the Cathode Mark 1 is a next generation, expandable gaming console. Using the patented 16X – microswitch developed by Cathode Co, players can connect up to 16 standard CRT televisions for an unparalleled entertainment experience. Titles available at launch include the award-winning adventure ‘That Night’ as well as the re-imagining of a classic – Long Pong.
Museum of Symmetry
Paloma Dawkins / Montréal, QC / 2018
Museum of Symmetry is an “other-dimension”, 2D-in-3D playground, virtual reality adventure game that disrupts conventional storytelling with a unique experience between humans and nature. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada in collaboration with Casa Rara Studio, Montreal-based pioneers in virtual reality projects.
Centenntable / 1000 Button Project
Amanda Hudgins / Lexington, Kentucky / On-going Project
A 100-button fighting game for 2 players where the controls are randomized every round, and possibly every move… We’re not sure, and that’s part of the fun! A chaotic deconstruction of fighting game tropes, such as timing, precision, and knowing what the heck is going on at any given moment, this is a button-masher in the most literal sense of the term.
GTAnimalia
Jason Bond / Toronto, ON / In Development
Greater Toronto Animalia (#GTAnimalia) is an open-ended, full-scale re-creation of the entire Toronto area (generated from real mapping data) where the animals have taken over the streets. You play as one of several local wildlife species, including a red fox, white-tailed deer, black bear or of course the local mascot, the trash panda. Up to four players at a time can roam familiar surroundings, race between landmarks, search for food, or just chill out. The game is developed with the support of the Toronto Arts Council.
ZAGMAX 3000
David Fono & Matthew Phillips / Toronto, ON / 2018
Straight from hyper-computer super-wizards working on the cutting edge of the future, it’s a giant ol’ box covered with glowy blinky lights! Run around it in circles while zagging and zigging in this 4 player arcade game.
Toast Boast
Michael Arcadi and Jesse Baker / Toronto, ON
A competitive 2 player beverage toasting simulator where you and a friend fight to be the first one to toast the other so hard that their glass shatters, thus wishing them good health. You can’t toast on an empty glass, so grab some drink from the tap!
Red Hot Ricochet
Wyatt Yeong / New York, NY
It’s high noon in this wasteland, and only one of you is making it out alive. Sure, you could shoot them right between the eyes – but what fun is that? Red Hot Ricochet is an intense game of ricochet duels. Wise shooting, lucky bounces, and a bit of trigger-nometry required.
Our Evil Tower
Dustin Freeman / Toronto, ON
O multiplayer game for 1 player in a VR headset, and up to 4 players using game controllers. The player in VR becomes a Dark Lord atop an Evil Tower. The players using game controllers are Heroes, who must bring down the Dark Lord before darkness spreads everywhere.
Closer
Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan / Montréal, QC
A full-body cooperative game for couples: To start, you must stand together, and to succeed, you must work together. The controller for Closer is the physical space between two people. Find a friend and navigate your ball of light through the spikes and upwards for as long as you can synchronize your movements!
RotoRing
Gregory Kogos / Leipzig, Germany
A dodgy alternative controller game using two concentric LED rings for a number of increasingly difficult levels Players control movement of the single brightest light with a rotating knob, and switch between the circles with the button. The goal in every level is to get to the empty (unlit) spot by avoiding red lights. Thanks to TIFF DigiPlayspace for the lend!
UPDATE: Unfortunately, Schwister will not be joining us this year..stay tuned for their future appearance at an HES event!
Schwister
Electric Perfume (Daniele Hopkins & Kyle Duffield) / Toronto, ON
A team-based multiplayer competitive light-up tabletop arcade game that combines the spirit of Twister with the frenzy of Whack-A-Mole! Tiles randomly shuffle with each play, and two teams, red and blue, compete to turn off all their tiles before the other team. It’s also a perfect surface to put your drink on, but good luck getting people to stop knocking it over in their efforts to win.
!!! MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC !!!
Catherine Debard has roots in Montreal’s experimental music scene, a community in which she has been actively involved for several years. Under the moniker YlangYlang, a solo project she has developed since 2012 (also featured in Paloma Dawkins’ Gardenarium), Debard translates experiences, memories, emotions and senses into electronic sounds through a delicate balance of improvisation and composition. She has released records internationally on labels such as Crash Symbols (USA), Phinery (DK), Fluere Tapes (SE) and ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ (RU).
On her quest for the communal exuberance of the dance floor, New Chance sometimes slips into the solitary contemplation of the garden. Whilst indulging in the excitement and anxiety of the city she sometimes stumbles upon the deep textural realms of nature.
Leucrocuta is an electronic music producer and performer living in Toronto. Her music plays in the spaces between synth-pop, post-industrial, ambient, and experimental. Leucrocuta’s soundscapes are sci-fi inspired, and explore gender and technology. In 2017 she released an EP, “when all the animals are dead.” It is “a fascinating artifact from [a] distant, dark, and strange place.” (Silent Shout). It “sounds uncanny in the sense that it feels familiar yet mysterious and arcane.” (SBVRSV)
Bile Sister is the genre-bending abrasively exciting music project by Julie Reich. She will be joined by a number of collaborators and is currently performing live with Heloise Simone George. Prepare to question rhythm and song structures. Synths, samplers, drum pads, strong vocals, melodica, Erhu and sometimes you’ll get drums, bass, guitar, gongs, horns and more! Avant pop meets post punk meets… ? You’ll want to dance regardless.
!!! VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER !!!
Did you know you can get a FREE TICKET to the ball? All for the low, low cost of helping us put on a great show for a couple hours, leaving you to enjoy the rest of the party with a cool drink in hand! We’re looking for Safe Spaces Officers, game attendants, set-up and tear-down crew, and even Drama Kids with some acting/storytelling chops. Check out which roles need help filling out with this spreadsheet right here. Once you have an idea of how you’d like to help us out, fill out the form below or e-mail amanda@handeyesociety.com with direct inquiries or questions about specific roles.
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!!! OUR SPONSORS !!!
Poster by Victor Martins.
All proceeds from the Hand Eye Society Ball fundraiser will go directly towards our year-round activities, including WordPlay, a festival celebrating writing and words in contemporary games; Camp Make-a-Game, for kids in under-served neighbourhoods around Toronto and the GTA; and our new 2019 programming theme, Play With Your Food, which will feature exhibits and workshops about playful media and the things we eat. The vast majority of our events are free and open to the public, and all contributions directly support our mission of exploring videogames as an art form and means of creative expression.
