At Blip Fest, Artists Create Music with Nintendo

Fans of old-school gaming systems and the emerging genre of chip music gather in Gowanus/Park Slope this weekend for the 2008 Blip Festival, held at The Bell House (149 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY). In chip music, artists recast old Nintendos, Game Boys, Atari and even Commodore 64 into "original, low-res, high-impact electronic music and visuals - sidestepping game culture and instead exploring the technology's untapped potential and distinctive intrinsic character."

At night, artists perform both music and visuals, starting at 8 p.m. and continuing through 1a.m. In the day, interested parties are encouraged to stop by for hands-on workshops, where artists walk new fans through the art of building musical instruments out of old video game hardware.

On Saturday, for instance, stop by at noon for a three hour workshop that will allow participants to build their own 8x8 pixel motion graphics device. Or, at 2 p.m., get a brief intro into NES (Nintendo) audio, various methods of creating NES music, and playing it back on the original system. To get a full list of the workshops and performing acts, check the schedule.

Tickets are $15 for a night, $50 for the festival, and $60 for the festival pass plus "Blip Festival 2006: The Videos" DVD. It started on Thursday, Dec. 4 and continues through Sunday evening.

Via McBrooklyn, check out the 2008 Blip Festival Promo:

Blip Festival 2008: The Promo from Richard Alexander Caraballo on Vimeo.

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