Manhattan art space The Tank and New York artist collective 8bitpeoples have announced the Blip Festival 2007, a four-day music and multimedia event focusing on the modern artistic exploration of primitive video game and home computer technology.Featuring 40 musicians and visualists from around the world, the Blip Festival showcases artists adopting and repurposing familiar but forgotten hardware – such as the Commodore 64, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Atari game console and home computer line, and the Nintendo Game Boy – exploring their untapped potential and unique aesthetic character. The festival’s nightly concerts and daytime screenings, workshops, and presentations are supplemented by B I T M A P : as good as new, an adjunct visual art exhibition, held at acclaimed Brooklyn gallery vertexList. The Blip Festival 2007 offers a cross-section of the chiptune musical aesthetic and related low-bit visual art.
2006’s inaugural Blip Festival was the first showcase of its kind and the largest event in the history of the form, drawing over 1400 attendees. And the Blip Festival 2007 sustains its predecessor’s breakaway momentum.
“Last year’s lineup and turnout made clear that there’s a large and growing interest in this movement that shouldn’t be ignored,” states Mike Rosenthal, Blip Festival co-curator and Managing Director of The Tank. “The Tank has been the New York home of the chiptune scene since about 2003, and we feel we owe it to this community to have a massive annual event that reaches out to the broader international community.” Long-standing friends of The Tank, Chelsea’s Eyebeam Atelier, lend their 5000 square-foot art space to this year’s festival, providing it with a perfect home.
“In hosting this event,” states Rosenthal, “we not only nurture the chiptune scene by giving international artists a chance to meet each other face-to-face and to present their work, but we also give New Yorkers a unique chance to experience a very hip international subculture that continues to grow and thrive across the world.”
Performing artists:
- 6955 (Japan)
- 8GB (Argentina)
- Alex Mauer (Philadelphia, PA)
- Anamanaguchi (New York, NY)
- Bit Shifter (New York, NY)
- Bodensta?ndig 2000 (Germany)
- Bokusatsu Shoujo Koubou (B.S.K.) (Japan)
- Crazy Q (Sweden)
- Gijs Gieskes (The Netherlands)
- gwEm (United Kingdom)
- Lo-bat. (Belgium)
- Mark DeNardo (New York, NY)
- Markus Schrodt (Austria)
- minusbaby (New York, NY)
- No Carrier (Philadelphia, PA) – (visuals)
- noteNdo (Baltimore, MD) – (visuals)
- Nullsleep (New York, NY)
- Oliver Wittchow (Germany)
- Otro (France) – (visuals)
- Postal_M@rket (Italy)
- Rugar (Sweden)
- Saskrotch (Chicago, IL)
- Tree Wave (Dallas, TX)
- Virt (New York, NY)
- Yes, Robot (Spain)
- more to be announced.
All events take place at Eyebeam Atelier on 540 W 21st Street in Chelsea, Manhattan. See the website for directions and to purchase advance tickets. Tickets are available both online from mid-October and at the door.
Screenings and presentations:
The daytime program will feature a series of screenings and presentations focusing on various topics and themes within art, low-bit electronics, music and culture. Listings and schedule will be announced on the website.
