Old Videogame Gear, New Music: The Blip Festival 2007 Returns to NYC for Second Triumphant Year, Nov. 29 through Dec. 2
4-Day Festival Celebrates Chiptune Culture with 40 Artists and Musicians from around the World
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Event Organized by The Tank and 8bitpeoples; Sponsored by Element Labs, Time Out Magazine, Make Magazine, Singha Beer, and Periscope Entertainment, with Additional Support from The Greenwall Foundation and New York State Council on the Arts
New York, NY, November 27, 2007-The Blip Festival 2007 ( www.blipfestival.org), a four-day celebration of music and art made with vintage video game and home computing equipment, today announced its full schedule of events, screenings and workshops celebrating chiptune culture in all its many forms.
Presented by The Tank and 8bitpeoples and sponsored in part by Element Labs, Time Out Magazine, Make Magazine, Singha Beer, and Periscope Entertainment, with additional support from The Greenwall Foundation and New York State Council on the Arts, this year's extravaganza follows up on the success of 2006's inaugural outing with an even larger venue to showcase its roster of 40 artists and musicians from the US, Japan, Europe and South America - many appearing for the first time ever in the United States.
"After last year's jaw-dropping lineup and unprecedented turnout, it became clear that there is a large and growing interest in this movement that shouldn't be ignored," said Mike Rosenthal, festival co-curator and The Tank's Managing Director. "By hosting this event, we not only nurture the scene, but also give New Yorkers a unique chance to experience a thriving international subculture."
With nightly concerts, weekend screenings and workshops, and a group gallery show "B I T M A P: as good as new" presented in association with the festival at Williamsburg's vertexList Gallery, The Blip Festival 2007 brings together the biggest names in the field of low-bit art and music for an opportunity to be seen and heard in the epicenter of the creative world.
Among the featured artists who will be showcasing their skills on Game Boys, Ataris, Commodore 64s and other old school gear are Tokyo-based 6955, the Netherlands' Gijs Gieskes, and New York's very own Bit Shifter and Nullsleep. In addition, daytime workshops, held on Saturday and Sunday, December 1 & 2, include such topics as "Break the Circle and Become an Atari DJ" and "Pixel Pushing the PPU: An Introduction to NES Graphics."
The Blip Festival 2007 will also present the world premiere of 8-BIT Generation, a new documentary about low-bit art and chiptune music, and the influence videogame culture has had on an entire generation of artists. Directed by Lionel Brouet, who will be present at the screening and will introduce the film, 8-Bit Generation features punk godfather and former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, Role Model (Sweden) Lo-bat (Belgium), Relax Beat (France), and The Wild Strawberries (China).
Among the festival's related events, vertexList Gallery is presenting "B I T M A P: as good as new," a group exhibition celebrating the history of the digital image, the aesthetics of early computing, and early video-game consoles, featuring Cory Arcangel, Chris Ashley, Eteam, Kimberly Hart, Tom Moody, and many, many more.
On Wednesday, November 28, to get everyone ready for the 4-day extravaganza, The Tank will present a screening of 8 BIT ( www.8bitmovie.com), a documentary about low-bit art and culture, which premiered at the Museum of Modern Art and was screened at last year's Blip Festival. For more information, including a complete schedule of events, visit: http://www.blipfestival.org/schedule.html.
EVENT INFORMATION:
Location: Eyebeam Atelier
540 W. 21st Street (Bet. 10th and 11th Avenues)
New York, NY 10011
Time: 8:00PM, nightly musical performances (Special daily exhibitions/showings. See festival website for more details. )
Tickets: Available at the door or online at www.blipfestival.org
Prices: $10/day, $35/festival pass
Tel.: (212) 937-6580
About The Tank
The Tank is a non-profit organization, bringing compelling cultural productions to New York City for over three years. With an eye for the offbeat and left-of-center, The Tank has provided New York with rare glimpses into new and unusual movements in art, such as the Bent Festival, an annual event focusing on the subversive practice of circuit-bending. A forerunner to the Blip Festival, the Bent Festival has enjoyed attendance in the thousands, and has been the subject of two feature-length documentaries. The Tank hosts experimental arts events most nights of the week in their Tribeca performing arts space. For more information, visit
www.thetanknyc.org.
About 8bitpeoples
8bitpeoples, based in New York City, is a collective musicians and artists dedicated to exploring the audiovisual style of low-bit video games and home computers. Championing this aesthetic, 8bitpeoples has become an internationally recognized hub of well-respected creative activity, and has become a driving force in advancing the growing international chiptune scene. 8bitpeoples and its individual members have been featured in Wired, The New York Times, MSNBC.com, Rolling Stone, The Wire, MTV.com, the Los Angeles Times, GameSpot, Nintendo Power, XLR8R, frieze, FuseTV, NPR's "The Next Big Thing" and recently appeared in the documentary 8 BIT, which premiered this past October at New York's Museum of Modern Art. For more information, visit www.8bitpeoples.com.
Media Contact:
Bill Lessard
PRwithBrains
(914) 476-6089
wlessard@prwithbrains.com