The Arcadian Renaissance

photo by Patricio DavilaThe Indie Arcade Cabinet, the Torontron, is currently one of a kind and consequently much in demand. It popped by the Toronto Comic Arts Festival at the Toronto Reference Library and before that was at the Flash in the Can Festival at the Hilton. After having been at the fine Function 13 gallery for the last month, it’s moved to InterAccess for June and July.

The Torontron spews delight, causing exclamations of “awesome!” and inspiring high-fives where ever it goes. A classic arcade cabinet retrofitted to play modern local indie games, what could be better?

How about SIX of them?

Nuit Blanche, the all night art thing that attracted close to a million people last year, has accepted the Hand Eye Society as a partner in its 2010 event on Oct. 2. We’re planning to present not just the Torontron, but a full arcade of indie goodness for the event in something we’re calling The Arcadian Renaissance. The venue? The atrium of the new TIFF Bell Lightbox at King and John.

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As well as the Toronto International Film Festival support, we’ve gotten sponsorship from Metanet, Spyeart, and ][ so far.

Email us if you can help with any of the following:

  • Sponsor a cabinet for $1000. Show your indie support and get your name/logo in front of a massive audience. What happens to the cabinet after Nuit Blanche? Well, either your machine is made available to the public with your logo on it, or you can have it for your home or office (provided the Society can borrow it when needed). Also, going halfsies on it with someone else ($500/$500) is fine too.
  • Donate some hardware to the project. We need 20″ or bigger displays (TV/CRT/LCD), PCs (boxes/laptops), arcade cabinets — send us the specs and we’ll tell you if we can use it. The less we have to buy the more money we have to do more projects.
  • Volunteer your time. If getting local indie games in front of a million people sounds like something you can get behind, let us know if you’d be into helping out with logistics, documentation, promotion, design, or construction. The only way this thing has gotten rolling is thanks to the involvement of members like Peter Marshall and Nick Pagee.

It’s gonna be sweet!