Generator Toronto Saturday

On Saturday night, we headed out to an event with no idea what to expect. That event was "Generator Toronto", and we were incredibly glad we went!

The whole group

This was the second annual Generator Toronto - a variety show focused on exploration, innovation, and creativity - the brainchild of Chris Hadfield and his son, Evan. The event brought together a number of entrepreneurs, creatives, and lots of thought-provoking stuff in general. The iconic Massey Hall was the location for this event.

Tupper Ware Remix Party started off the show with a few "80s-inspired Synth Rock/Electro funk" tunes and kept the music flowing between acts throughout the night. Adam Savage (yes, the MythBusters Adam Savage) then took the stage as MC and told stories about his children growing up, and life in general to start things off.

Michael McCreary, a stand-up comedian got the show rolling, with Chris Hadfield following right behind. Chris spoke about his recent trip to the Arctic with numerous creatives, a part of the Generator program, and showed some amazing footage from their travels. It looked, and sounded, like an amazing opportunity to explore a part of the world that is visited by few people, but is part of the country we currently live in.

The man (and his moustache) have not aged since he was a young Air Force pilot...

Next up, were some Cyborg artists - Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas. "Cyborg artist" is not a term you usually hear, and these two are certainly doing some wild stuff. Neil is colour blind and he wears an antenna to hear colour, you actually may have seen his TED talk. Moon has an implant in her arm which is connected to the internet and allows her to feel every earthquake on the planet. Together, they also each have a tooth and they can communicate to each other using Morse code by clenching their teeth. Some of their projects seem a bit out there, but it is amazing what can be done with current technology.

We were even treated to a unique musical performance of the sound of colour images live-streamed from the International Space Station, and Moon recreated the vibrations in her arm by playing a drum to the beat of earthquakes in real-time. It didn't always sound pretty when the two were combined, but it was an interesting concept. 

Then we learned about some world-changing companies: The Ocean Cleanup and Lucky Iron Fish.

The Ocean Cleanup is a company focused on developing technologies for cleaning up the plastic in our oceans. The founder is only 22 years old, having started the project when he was 16, and the company has done quite a bit of work in determining how much plastic is in our oceans (sadly, much more than we thought) and coming up with big solutions.

Lucky Iron Fish tackles a completely different problem which is that of iron-deficiency in much of the world. They have developed an iron fish which can be cooked with food in water and adds iron to that food, AND it is good for 5 years. Such a creative solution to a worldwide problem.

Then we were treated to a musical performance by Amanda Palmer. So good, and so funny.

Then Amanda's husband, writer Neil Gaiman, took the stage and Chris Hadfield interviewed them both.

Overall, the evening was entertaining, thought-provoking, and fun. It went on a bit longer than expected so when we left the theatre at 11:30 pm, we headed straight to Fran's Diner for our evening meal. No complaints.

​Here are some more photos from the event:

This time last year we were eating our way along the Danforth, in 2014 we got incredibly lost while Geocaching, and in 2013 we explored the beauty and fossils of Manuels River.