Moogfest is almost here! Moogfest is an annual multi-day festival that is located at the intersection of music, technology, art and human interaction in “The Research Triangle.” Started in 2004 in NYC the festival is now in its 12th year. Moving from NYC, to Asheville, then Durham Moogfest curates and hosts those at the forefront of music, art, and the science of sound. Moogfest is May 17-20 spread through venues in downtown Durham, North Carolina.

“By day, Moogfest is a platform for conversation and experimentation, attracting creative and tech enthusiasts for four days of participatory programming in Durham, North Carolina. By night, Moogfest presents cutting-edge performances by early pioneers in electronic music, contemporary pop innovators, and avant-garde experimentalists in venues throughout the city.

Moogfest is a tribute to analog synthesizer pioneer Dr. Robert Moog and the profound influence his inventions have had on how we hear the world over the last 60 years. The exchange between engineer and musician that he fostered is celebrated with a unique festival format where the creative process is understood as collaboration among many people, across time and space, in commerce and culture.”

Here are 5 things not to miss:

Chelsea Manning

National security expert Chelsea Manning’s keynote will explore how tools and enhancements in technology will be influencing our future and are/will tamper with our private life, our society and explore what we think are acceptable or unreasonable evolutions.

With Jennifer’s work with IBM Watson, her Keynote will come from both a philosophical and practical standpoint. While Chelsea’s Keynote is focused on disruption within technology, and how that is a tool for destruction and creativity.

Sonic Robots

Moritz Simon Geist aka Sonic Robots is a performer, musicologist, and robotics engineer. His robotic instruments and performances have been shown in numerous European festivals and exhibitions throughout the last year. His whole concept revolves around Robotic Electronic Music (R.E.M). He uses futuristic DIY mechanic instruments and small robots to create robotic techno and will be performing on stage with Mouse on Mars in the A3 Spatial Sound environment within The Armory. Later this year he’s debuting his first album, the first techno record recorded entirely with robots produced by Mouse On Mars. He teaches on the progression of technology and society at the NYU Berlin and will be presenting various workshops at Moogfest.

Check out a sampler here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVSP4XCOu18

Girls Who Code Engineer Scholars

Moogfest has partnered with Girls Who Code for an Engineer Scholarship giving 4 young female students the opportunity to build their own Subharmonicon synthesizer at this year’s festival. Read about it on FACT Mag. This program is a continuation of Moogfest’s dedication to STEAM, an educational approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking.

ALEX ZHANG HUNGTAI

Beyond the personal consciousness, there is the familial consciousness, above the familial there is the cultural, above the cultural, the historical, and so on ascending into the vast cosmical or spiritual consciousness. The conception of Divine Weight derives from Zhang’s “failed” attempts of saxophone compositions and recordings accumulated over the last 3 years, from there it became the actual stem tracks that were heavily digitally disfigured until it no longer resembled the sound of saxophones. Like dreams, visions often come to us without us having the capability to measure or understand fully what they mean. Similar to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Psychomagic, dreams and visions take on the roles of witnesses inside the uncharted labyrinth of the personal subconscious. To witness, is to believe. To believe, is to project a certain reality onto the external world. The projection then, has nothing to do with reality. Perhaps it’s where dreams go, after it dies.

Nicole Mitchell  

This jazz enthusiast and avant-garde artist who’s part of the association of Advancement of Creative Musicians will be performing a 4 hour durational on her flute immersed with a plethora of moog synths. This is a completely different genre for her, and promises to be extraordinary.

Check out the 2018 SCHEDULE

Buy your tickets HERE.

See you there!