Piece by Randy Knott

Hate Nuit Blanche crowds but love cool art exhibits? The Pixel Gallery is opening up the The Artillerist 'Make Art, Not War!' exhibit a little early this year, so now everyone can experience the interactive Wii-mote project without having to wait for the Nuit Blanche frenzy!

Known for cool tech-based artistry, The Pixel Gallery's new exhibit features some awesome work from the creative talent that makes up The Artillerist project, plus you get to make your own art with guns while seeing how motion sensor technology is being used at Nuit Blanche 2008.

Piece by Popdis

The Artillerist 'Make Art, Not War!' project is all about guns, art, and interactivity; and the Pixel Gallery curators have worked to create a multi-projection immersive exhibit, showcasing both the artists and the cool interactive components.

The Artillerist project features works by Niko Stumpo, Neil Collyer, Eepmon, Derrick Hodgson, Randy Knott, Janis Kun, Popdis, Mikey Richardson, Saran, Sectr, Bram Timmer, Ree Treweek and Alex & Felix Whitholtz. These artists illustrate both classic and digital artistry around the 'Make Art, Not War!' theme, with really impressive but drastically varied pieces.

The draw for Nuit Blanche fans will surely be the interactivity component, where audience-controlled 'paint brushes' (toy guns with embedded Wii controllers) are used to "point, shoot and paint" on virtual canvases. The guns output unique artist-created graphics, creating evolving digital images throughout the gallery.

Here's the coolest part: Visitors can use the original graphics to create their own digital art, which can then be output as a hi-res 11x17 print. The art is also added to a Flickr gallery to create further online interaction. I don't always go in for these 'everyone's an artist' type of exhibits, but this show combines The Artillerist talent with the audience in a really unique way.

The exhibit opens this Saturday September 6th at The Pixel Gallery and runs until Nuit Blanche on October 4th. The art will also be auctioned off that night, which means a chance to get your hands on some of these awesome original pieces.

Right side piece by Eepmon