The Tank and 319 Scholes Present 2011 Bent Festival

Online, June 14, 2011 (Newswire.com) - BROOKLYN, NY - The 2011 Bent Festival will be held at 319 Scholes in Brooklyn, June 23rd - 25th. Bent Festival is an annual art and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit bending. Each year we invite artists from across the country and around the globe to perform music with their home-made or circuit bent instruments, teach workshops to adults and children alike, create beautiful art installations and to generally come together, face to face, and showcase the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture.

Links
Web: http://bentfestival.org
Schedule: http://bentfestival.org/2011/schedule
Twitter: @bentfestival (#bent11)
Facebook: Bent Festival Facebook
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/178498
Photo stream on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bentfestival2011/
Video by Dr. Rek (featuring Daedalus): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Pbyg_kcEk

Official Schedule of Events
Tickets for workshops, presentations, and performances are required unless stated otherwise. Tickets and passes for all Bent Festival events will be made available through Brown Paper Tickets. Workshop prices include materials and all fees are paid to the presenters. As always, the Beginning Circuit Bending Workshop is FREE. If you can, please bring a cool toy or two to bend.

Thursday June 23rd
Performances/Video Screening
08:00pm Performance: Tim Laursen
08:30pm Video Screening: Benjamin Gaulon (Corrupt)
08:45pm Performance: Ted Hayes
09:15pm Video Screening: Evan Meaney (Well of Representation)
09:30pm Performance: Lesley Flanigan
10:00pm Video Screening: Billy Roisz (brRRMMMWHEee)
10:15pm Performance: Phillip Stearns
10:45pm Video Screening
11:00pm Performance: Jeff Donaldson

Friday June 24th
Workshops/Presentations
12:00pm-2:00pm - ExiTrip with Ed Bear and Lea Bertucci
12:00pm-04:00pm - Intro to Circuit Bending with Pete Edwards
2:30pm-04:30pm - Ed Bear - DIY PCB Fabrication
04:00pm-06:00pm - Todd Michael Bailey - WTPA2
Performances/Video Screening
8:00pm Performance: Nic Collins
08:30pm Video Screening: Karl Klomp (TieDoe)
08:45pm Performance: Phillip White
09:15pm Video Screening: Phillip Stearns (Apeiron Peras)
09:30pm Performance: Burnkit26000
10:00pm Video Screening
10:15pm Performance: Daniel Fishkin
10:45pm Video Screening: Karl Klomp (Sumburst)
11:00pm Performance: Jamie Allen
11:30pm Video Screening: Billy Roisz (Elesyn 15.625)
11:45pm Performance: Arcangel Constantini
12:15pm Video Screening: Billy Roisz (AVVA:plax)
12:30pm Performance: Pete Edwards

Saturday June 25th
Workshops/Presentations
12:00pm-02:00pm - Ted Hayes - Neurohedron
3:00pm-07:00pm - Hans Tammen - Third Eye Orchestra Workshop
Performances/Video Screening
08:45pm Performance: Hans Tammen Third Eye Bent Festival Orchestra
09:15pm Video Screening: Gijs Gieskes
09:30pm Performance: Morgan Higby-Flowers
10:00pm Video Screening: Daniel Fishkin
10:15pm Performance: Dr Rek
10:45pm Video Screening
11:00pm Performance: Loud Objects
11:30pm Video Screening: Billy Roisz (Tilt)
11:45pm Performance: Computer At Sea

What is Circuit Bending?
The term circuit bending refers to the act of modifying the circuitry of battery-powered children's toys to create strange, new, and unintended sounds for creative purposes. This re-appropriation of objects of a digital childhood is quickly growing in popularity as it offers an affordable, culturally referenced path into the creation of electronic music. Instead of merely watching a person's face glowing in the screen of a laptop, the audience can watch performers wrangle squelches, bleeps, groans, and blips out of everyday childhood toys. This is fun to watch, and fun to do.

Furthermore, circuit bending is the direct result of experimentation and play. Very little technical know-how is required to get started, and this invites a wider audience who may be curious about electronic music, but feel intimidated by the steep learning curve or passivity of the traditional performance setup.

Overview
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 spaces in each city. There will be a full schedule of in-depth workshops and 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.

Installations
The installation artists will come to their respective spaces with a plan and their materials, but will create their entire bent artistic works live over the course of the week. The artists will work during festival hours only, providing the public a complete look at their artistic process. Each artist will be happy to take time to discuss their work and in some cases have you get involved with their projects.

About The Organizers
Founded in 2003, The Tank is a non-profit arts presenter whose mission is to provide a welcoming, creative, collaborative, and affordable environment for artists and activists engaged in the pursuit of new ideas. Through a wide range of low-cost, high-concept arts and public affairs programming, The Tank seeks to cultivate a new generation of audience for live performance, civic discourse, and the work of emerging artists. Follow The Tank on Twitter (@thetanknyc), Facebook, Tumblr and Wordpress.

319 Scholes supports digital arts and experimentation through exhibitions, lectures, panels, participatory workshops, and live performances. We use a non-disciplinary approach to examine technology and its effects on our communities, relationships, and the body. Grounded in the belief that art is the best way to navigate the potential of networked culture, we aim to cultivate challenging and experiential modes of engaging with new media. Established in 2009, 319 Scholes is run by artists and a core group of collaborators, operating out of a renovated warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn.