Saturday, April 24, 2010

Circuit Bending in DUMBO


Walking through Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood at midnight last night we spied a crazy light installation flashing in an empty storefront.  I stopped to take a picture through the window when I realized there was a performance going on in the back of the space.  We went in and found out that the Bent Festival was going on.  It's an annual event devoted to circuit bending, which is where you alter electronic toys or create devices to make new sounds and music.  We caught the last performance of the night...

... which was a collective called Alpha-Bit, they included someone playing a marimba type instrument, paired with 4 or 5 other people playing music and sounds on various electronic devices.  It went really well with the video projection behind them.  


They also had a lot of great merchandise for sale including CD's by Gannon, one of the performers last night... 

...,some DIY electronic sound altering and looping devices, and a really nice hand printed zine titled Nettle Soup from Spain giving you instructions on how to make your own devices.  You can view all the pages of it here.

Tonight's the last night of the 3-day festival.  There are workshops in the afternoon and more performances in the evening.  More info is available at their site, www.bentfestival.org.

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