bent 2006

INSTALLATIONS at BENT 2006 FESTIVAL

This year's festival will feature many fantastic installations. While the schedule is still being completed, these artists are so far confirmed:

Galaga RemiX2
Andrew Bucksbarg
Introduced in 1981, the Galaga arcade game became a classic for the company Namco. Galaga RemiX2 uses a recent game pack to create an installation that allows two participants to play with hacked versions of the classic Galaga video game. By manipulating a simple interface, audio-visual artifacts are created over a continuous drone.

videoZpainter + caja d" defectos
arcangel constantini


The Whisper Opera
Caitlin Berrigan
I am interested in the electronic and the organic finding each other to create interfaces where human audiences relate to the cyborg in themselves through tactile, technological experiences that are neither utilitarian nor commercial. For the Bent Festival 2006, I will be working on an interactive piece, the "Whisper Opera." The opera will consist of small silicone body parts equipped with sensors and speakers that, when removed from their cozy display boxes and held in the palm of the hand, will whisper and sing to their holders- separately or in unison.

"The origin of imagination", 3 DVD 3'min.16''sec. 2004. Soundtrack "styltriady" by Mokamed.
Chiara Passa
“The origin of imagination” is a video installation which develops itself on two walls and the floor. The three screenings in the corner, of the three cartesian axis, reconstructs one central perspective. In this illusory dimension, infinite lines generating emptiness and distances, are "attracted" and skim one with the others, fading, they become essential structures that draw an incomplete ‘original project’. I identify this space perception with the origin of the imagination; the origin of visions. The artwork represents a virtual extension of a space that describes both “our being by ourselves” and “our being surrounded by the everything”. It’s like if the place was broken and this takes you towards freedom. A “virtual opening” never averred, because of its constant transormation and therefore it doesn’t characterize any specific place. In this “extension” all directions the spectator images to take are equvalent. “The origin of imagination”: space is the pure shape of intuition.

Dream Blankets II
Jacqueline Gordon
a giant blanket instillation that plays circuit bent sounds for you to cozy up to.

The Pelican Tree
Maggie Ens and Marc Sloan
The Pelicans Tree symbolizes the imagistic language of the alchemists, the Philosophers Stone, transforming base metals into precious metals, healing and rejuvenating. The Pelican Tree will incorporate a wide variety of reusable materials, including wood, books, bent toys and lights, as well as other found objects

CT_BT_GRAFFITI Mausoleum_3 Bluetooth interactive installation
Petko Dourmana
The interactive work proposes to virtually rebuild the lost physical space of the Mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov, that used to be the most remarkable public symbol during the Communistic period in Bulgaria, inside the visual and physical space of the entrance at 15 Nassau, New York. Using Bluetooth technology embedded in many mobile communication devices, visitors who have this functionality on their mobile phones are automatically invited to activate it and will receive a series of visual and audio fragments which recreate the space of the former Mausoleum. This newly common-used technology is highly open for communication and in this sense it can be likened to graffiti.As graffiti in public space confronts passers-by with intentional messages, this work addresses notions of presentation space vs. private space and representations of time and space visually and virtually.

Patch Work
Phillip Stearns
Vintage TI99/4a computers have been modified to create and respond to sonic and visual stimuli from the environment and from themselves. Pixelform will be performing original compositions using the modified computers as both instruments and collaborators. The modified computers will also be set up as an interactive installation free for hand-on exploration.

CABINET MUSIC:IN AND OUTSIGHT
Sarah Bogner & Aylin Langreuter
A light-controlled instrument-installation, using bent circuits with photo-sensitive cells in casings.

The Uneven Symphony
WATFIV aka Christopher Sorg
The Uneven Symphony is a large toy orchestra with a single, central control interface. The symphony is configured as a surround-sound installation. Computer-based interpretive processes using various data sources manipulate the orchestra in realtime.


Check the website for the schedule of concerts, workshops and installations involving circuit bending and computer programming.

All BENT 2006 events will take place at 15 Nassau Street in lower Manhattan. The space is accessable via many downtown subway lines including the 2,3,4, and 5.

Each year, The Tank invites benders from across the country and around the globe to perform concerts with their circuit bent instruments, to teach workshops to adults and children alike, and to generally descend on our fair city for a week of sharing and showing off their skills.

If you have the least bit of curiosity about electronics or electronic music, or if you've ever just really wanted to rip your toys apart, this festival is for you. Each day we will have open studios with expert
benders on hand to help you get started. There will be installation artists building circuit-bent artwork throughout the space. There will be a full schedule of in-depth workshops. There will be nightly concerts of some of the best circuit benders in the world. It is genuinely fun for the whole family. You will have a blast.

Don't have any idea what we're talking about? Take a look at some of these circuit bending sites:

http://www.anti-theory.com
http://www.oddmusic.com/illogic//
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_bending
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Pbyg_kcEk

PERFORMANCES

All concert listings are subject to change.

TUESDAY
7pm - 9pm, FREE
Festival Kick-Off Party

R. Luke Dubois


WEDNESDAY
8pm - 10pm, $7

Daniel Cashin
Shotaro Nakano
Bubblyfish
Pixelform
Gunung Sari


THURSDAY
8pm - 10pm, $7


Josh Tobin
NIES-DeVEGA-TAMMEN - Die Schrauber
kingcapitolpunishment
Tarran { the tailor }
MHCrispo
Receptors


FRIDAY
8pm - 1am, $10

The Circuit Bending Orchestra
The Bemus Point
Mystery Circuits by Mike Walters
George Lazenbleep 'dusty toy space-funk'
Lorin Edwin Parker
Andrew Bucksbarg with Michele Darling and Terry Golob
Peter Blasser
The Circuit-Bent Project presents Slow Children Playing
Travis McCoy Fuller


SATURDAY
6pm - 8pm, FREE
Book Release Party with Nick Collins

8pm - 1am, $10

The Tour Company with Dan Tombs, Phil Archer, Luke Abbott
Ian Helliwell
Vic Rawlings
Mystery Palace (FoodTeam / James Buckley / Joey Van Phillips)
Peter Edwards
Maikko (Otolab)
Beatrix*Jar
Burnkit2600

WHAT IS CIRCUIT BENDING ?