Blip Festival '08 daytime activities sound like a blast

12pm-3pm: Make Your Own Visualist – electronics building workshop This 3 hour workshop will allow participants to build their own 8x8 pixel motion graphics device. The project will center around a portable 64 pixel LED array and microcontroller that can be carried or worn. Participants will learn the basics of soldering and kit-building, and will build their own programmable LED device. The battery powered device can be worn and programmed via buttons to make simple changing graphics. This is a beginner electronic workshop. All tools are provided, and kits are included in the workshop fee. 12pm - 1pm: Surrealtime 2: 8-bit Demo Show Phoenix (MindCandy DVD, Hornet PC demo archive) returns to showcase the latest and greatest demos on Atari 8-bit, C64, Vic-20, ZX Spectrum, and more. New this year will be demos made on homebrew 8-bit hardware and the DTV joystick, delving a little into the "circuit bending" phenomenon. You'll be amazed by the visual effects and music that can be wrestled out of primitive hardware.

1pm - 2pm: 2A03 Workshop - Crash Course in FamiTracker with Baron Knoxburry
A one hour adventure through FamiTracker's abilities to program the Nintendo Entertainment System's 2a03 audio chip. Baron Knoxburry shall expound upon the qualities and limitations of each voice, how to build instruments, explore all the effects commands, and try to maintain an open forum for discussion in the process. And for anyone
who thinks they know it all already -- there will be a one hour competition starting 10 minutes before this workshop begins, so you can compete with the Baron of Knoxburry as he tries to teach a class! These fresh tracks, programmed within an hour, will be played back during the final 10 minutes so we can hear a variety of different
styles.

2pm - 3pm: Beyond Vegavox: NES albums and music on real hardware
Presented by NO CARRIER (Don Miller)
In 2007 Alex Mauer released Vegavox, the first NES music album distributed on actual carts and made for playback on the classic Nintendo console. The man behind the code was NO CARRIER, or Don Miller. Others have followed, releasing their music in NES rom format via the internet. Now NO CARRIER will teach you how to take it to the next level, moving beyond your PC to the authentic sounds of the NES. This workshop will focus on a brief intro to NES audio, various methods of creating NES music, playing it back on hardware, and even creating cart-based albums of your own. After this workshop you'll delete your emulators and VST's and settle for no less than the real thing!

Sunday December 7th
1pm - 3pm: Screening: "Blip Festival:Reformat the Planet"
BLIP FESTIVAL: REFORMAT THE PLANET is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as chiptunes, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results.

Using New York as a microcosm for a larger global movement, "...Reformat the Planet" maps out the genesis of the first annual Blip Festival, a four day celebration of over 30 international artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit video game consoles. With floor-stomping rhythms and fist-waving melodies, trailblazers of the chiptune idiom descend upon Manhattan to pen a new chapter in the history of electronic music.
http://www.2playerproductions.com/video/rftp/