The Tank is pleased to announce The Fifth Annual Bent Festival of hardware hacking, DIY electronics, and circuit bending. The term circuit bending refers to the inspired short-circuiting of battery-powered children's toys to create new musical instruments, and over the last few decades a worldwide subculture has sprung up around this amazing art form. The Bent Festival began as a celebration of circuit bending, but has quickly grown to embrace not only circuit benders but also artists who create instruments and artwork from scratch using homemade circuitry. Artists from around the globe perform music with their homemade or circuit bent instruments each night of the festival, teach workshops to adults and children alike, and create amazing, interactive art installations. The festival brings together artists of all ages and showcases the state of the art of DIY electronics and circuit bending culture.

In New York the Festival will take place at DCTV, a documentary video and media community center located in a converted landmark firehouse downtown.

ALL TIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Location:
DCTV
87 Lafayette St (map)
New York, NY, 10013

Installations

Installations are permanently on display during festival hours.
Michael Dory (NYC)
Lesley Flanigan (NYC)
Andy Doro (NYC)
Matt Durant (Toronto)
Phil Stearns (Los Angeles)
Ed Bear (NYC)
Lea Bertucci (NYC)
Leah Wechsler (NYC)
Dr. Bleep (Austin)
Steak (Austria)
Christopher McDonald (NYC)

Schedule

Concert 1 - Thu, Apr 24, 6:00 PM
(DCTV) - $10

6:00 Opening Reception
7:00 Furby Youth Choir (Austin)
7:45 Loud Objects (NYC)
8:30 Steak (Austria)
9:15 Joo Youn Paek (Korea)
10:00 Phil Stearns (Los Angeles)
10:45 Dr. Bleep (Austin)

Concert 2 - Fri, Apr 25, 7:00 PM
(DCTV) - $10

7:00 Carlos Antenna (Toronto)
7:45 Fran.x (France)
8:30 Aimee Norwich (NYC)
9:15 Computer at Sea (Maine)
10:00 EraSer (Italy)
10:45 Emilie Mouchous (Montreal) and Erin Sexton (Montreal)
11:30 Dr. Rek (Japan)
12:15 Roth Mobot (Distance Performance) (Chicago)

Workshops - Sat, Apr 26, 11:00 AM
(DCTV) -

11:00 Intro Workshop with Clifford Bret (NYC)
In the Madnoodler's introduction to circuit bending course, participants will learn the basics of circuit bending. Organizational skills and soldering will be demonstrated. Other skills to be developed include pin pointing bends and taking an ordinary keyboard and making it into an opto theremin. Using variations of the "starmate" style keyboard, participants will be urged to explore with photo-resistors and alligator clips to find unique possibilities. After the fun of exploring these versatile keyboards, participants will stabilize and optimize their creation by heat shrinking the connections.

1:00 Sensors - op-amps, comparators, and digitally controlled switches with Phil Stearns (Los Angeles)
FOR EXPERIENCED ELECTRONIC TINKERERS an understanding of the electronics basics is a must though they will be rehashed briefly We will cover some basic types of analog sensors and look at how to interface them with circuit bending projects. The hands-on component will guide you through building a circuit that will allow sound and/or light to control bends.

1:00 Battery Powered Noise Generator with Jessica Rylan (Boston)
Maybe you're interested in EVP (electronic voice phenomena) and want a good source of white noise. Maybe you're a nervous wreck and need something to drown the world out. Or maybe you feel the need to dance in from of a giant amp that's blasting harsh noise every once in a while! If so, then this is the workshop for you. We'll build a simple noise generator using a handful of resistors, capacitors, and transistors. We'll also talk about the fundamentals of electric circuits, physical and mathematical approaches to noise, and historical perspectives on the electronics industry.

3:00 Fundamentals of Synthesis Electronics with Todd Bailey (Chicago)

3:00 Intro to Video Bending with Ed Bear (NYC)
The disappearing vocabulary of analog video is at once the signature of the 20th century and a powerful tool for recording, performance, and learning. A basic understanding of the video signal turns any television into an oscilloscope and all electronics into potential audio-visual instruments. The best way to learn is doing, and that is the focus of this class. Techniques of filtering and manipulating NTSC video signals will be demonstrated on working instruments frankensteined from old equipment. All Ages.

Concert 3 - Sat, Apr 26, 7:00 PM
(DCTV) - $10

7:00 Gunung Sari (NYC)
7:45 Speaker Synth (NYC)
8:30 F4RM (Mexico)
9:15 Bryan Eubanks (NYC) and Vic Rawlings (NYC)
10:00 alias pail (NYC)
10:45 Big A little a (NYC)
11:30 Spunkytoofers (Backcountry Ozarks)
12:15 Burnkit 2600 (Connecticut)

http://www.bentfestival.org for more info!