Nuit Blanche, Toronto's sixth annual dusk-'til-dawn celebration of arts and culture, will once again be feted in the city's east end.

The 'all-night-contemporary-art-thing' officially begins at 6:59 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1 and run until sunrise Sunday.

Nuit Blanche installations, both curated and independent, will take place at various venues, public spaces and neighbourhoods in three designated zones in the downtown core.

In total, Nuit Blanche 2011 will feature 134 projects (46 of which are within three curated zones) created by more than 500 local, national and international artists.

Several cultural and educational institutions as well as entire neighbourhood and individual artists are also contributing a total of 88 independent projects to Nuit Blanche.

The centerpiece of this year's Nuit Blanche is an interactive installation called 'Flightpath Toronto' (by artists Natalie Jeremijenko and Usman Hague), which will give participants the chance to fly over Nathan Phillips Square.

DISTILLERY HISTORIC DISTRICT

- Locally, there will be four featured installations at the Distillery Historic District:

St. James Circus, 55 Mill St., Building 74, http://stjamescircus.blogspot.com/

A post-post-apocalyptic carnival, St. James Circus is the brainchild of Benecorpe Community, an artist collective examining issues of climate change, cultural hybridity and transformation due to necessity and (possible) apocalypse, in partnership with Hilary Predko and Anthony Swan.

This 25th century circus show is a sequel to Benecorpo's 2010 Nuit Blanche installation Way-Station (North Migration) and features costumed characters, improvisation, vaudeville acts, fashion and strongmen and dancers,

Audience participation is encouraged and welcome.

Parental guidance is advised.

- Conversation Piece, 55 Mill St., Building 5, Suite 101, www.deafculturecentre.ca

Essentially a live sculpture that grows throughout the night, this installation consists of contemporary deaf body sculptures and performance where sign language conversations are captured. This installation is the vision of artists Enza Iovio.

Held at the Deaf Culture Centre, Conversation Piece will feature two or more performance artists coming to life as they mimic audience members in conversation. Live performances will take place at 7, 9 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.

Visitors to this site can also check out the Figure and Ground: Deaf View Photography exhibit by the nine-member Deaf View Image Art (de-VIA) whose 58 featured images celebrate the deaf experience by emphasizing the hands, eyes, movement and values in conversation, dance, signs and fingerspelling as well as photography as well as social commentary.

The photographers will be on hand with sign language interpreters to converse about their work.

- Lights Contacts, 55 Mill St., Cannery Building 58, Studio 317, www.lelabo.ca

Le Laboratoire d'Art (Le Labo) is the location of this interactive sensory installation where spectators are transformed into human instruments by physically connecting with others.

Presented by Scenocosme, a collective of French artists, Lights Contacts invites people to question and explore their perception of each other by touching a small interactive shiny ball. This installation is suitable for all ages.

- The Futuristic Institute of Collective Happenings, 55 Mill St., (several spaces throughout the Distillery Historic District), www.thedistillerydistrict.com, www.thomsokoloski.com

This installation is part of a greater Nuit Blanche initiative throughout the Distillery Historic District called Futurism Today or NOT!

Curated by Thom Sokoloski, The Futuristic Institute of Collective Happenings is a large scale, site-specific animation inspired by the movement of futurism that attempted to redefine painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, theatre, film, fashion, textiles, literature, music, architecture and even gastronomy in the early 1900s.

Visit www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca for a complete rundown of the programming for the all-night celebration of contemporary art.

Nuit Blanche information can also be found at www.facebook.com/sbnuitblancheTO or on Twitter at @sbnuitblancheTO.