Manhattan art space The Tank and New York artist collective 8bitpeoples announce 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 fascinating cross-section of the chiptune musical aesthetic and related low-bit visual art, in an explosive event taking place at the epicenter of the creative world.
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.
Performing artists:
6955 (Japan)/8GB (Argentina)/Alex Mauer (Philadelphia, PA)/Anamanaguchi (New York, NY)/Bit Shifter (New York, NY)/Bodenständig 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)+ many more to be announced.