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upcoming performances…

ranjit — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 04:58:19 +0000

With robot toy piano and more: this Saturday October 23, sometime after 7pm at Babycastles Manhattan, 217 East 42nd (@ 3rd Av).

With flaming, melting instruments: Saturday November 6, after 6pm, at Flux Factory’s Self-Destructing Art Show – Flux Factory, 39-31 29th St in Long Island City.

(Corrected!! Self-Destructing Art Show opens Saturday 11/6, not Friday 11/5.)

(Also! duYun is taking some of my homemade instruments to Shanghai to perform at the Rockbund Art Museum, opening her collaboration with Shahzia Sikander!)

noise party at AVAM, Baltimore

ranjit — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:38:57 +0000

Noise Party! On Saturday the 15th I’m doing a family junk-music workshop at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Make silly instruments and silly noises! Stick around for other cool events! More info at avam.org.

Download poster

water installation this weekend at Dumbo Art Festival

ranjit — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:42:46 +0000

I’m showing an installation in the East River, at that little brick-littered beach right under the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan Bridge this Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 27 and 28). It’s named Ignatz and it’s all about bricks.

Plenty of art and performances at the DUMBO Art Festival all weekend. You really should go!

p.s. consider subscribing to the moonmilk mailing list for announcements of stuff like this.

class: make an electric junk guitar

ranjit — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:35:42 +0000

On July 30th I’ll be teaching a class at Etsy Labs in Brooklyn, making electric guitars out of junk. Check out the etsy class listing to register for the class, or look at this post on Make.

“The electric guitar is a sophisticated and highly evolved instrument. But you can make your own out of a few bucks worth of junk and parts. Learn to wind your own guitar pickups and build them into a simple one- or two-string junk guitar with a surprisingly nice sound. Depending on your ambition and experience, you can make your junk guitar as simple or as sophisticated as you want, but everybody is guaranteed to go home with at least a fun twangy noisemaker.”

three noisy things coming soon

ranjit — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:35:26 +0000

I’ve got three noisy things happening or starting soon:

Friday afternoon (April 4): instrument workshop/jam session at The Tank, NYC
Opening Friday (April 4): Everything Must Go — the last ever show at Flux Factory’s current space in Queens, soon to be flattened by the MTA.
Opening Saturday (April 5): Artistic Mediums: Revelations of the Invisible — at the Museum of New Art, Pontiac, MI

FIRST OFF, this Friday from 2-5pm at The Tank in Tribeca:

I’m doing an instrument-building workshop and jam session with the electronic noise band The Loud Objects. They’ll teach you to program cheap industrial microcontrollers into noisemakers of wonder; I’ll be showing how to wind your own electric guitar pickups and make simple but surprisingly great sounding electric stringed instruments. You’ll leave with one or more new instrument made by your own hands! (There’s an optional donation for supply costs.)

The Tank @ Collective: Unconscious is located at 279 Church Street between Franklin and White. To get to The Tank by subway take A, C, E, J, M, Z, N, Q, R, W, Z, or 6 to Canal Street, or 1 to Franklin Street.

LATER THAT SAME NIGHT: opening party 7pm at Flux Factory:

“Soon, very soon, the Flux Factory space at 38-38 43rd Street will be demolished. In anticipation of this event, we are turning the entirety of Flux Factory into a giant installation of itself. For the past six years, Flux Factory has developed its gallery and aesthetics laboratory at our space in Long Island City. We have had scores of shows and many hundreds of artists have graced these halls. Now it must all be destroyed. Our entire block will be razed by the pitiless bulldozers of the MTA. Everything Must Go.”

I’ll be making a sound sculpture for the show based on the recorded voices of flux factory artists, residents, and friends. I can’t give any details yet because I’m going to improvise the whole thing tomorrow night. Will it work!? Only one way for you to find
out! If that’s not enough, there will also be live music and booze.

It’s gonna be a big crazy show, check it out. If you can’t make it to the opening, the show will be open weekends (and other times – check the web site) until the CLOSING PARTY on Saturday, April 26.

Flux Factory is in Long Island city near the N, R, V, G, and 7 trains. …directions

AND THEN ON SATURDAY IN THE MIDWEST…
Opening party 6-9 pm at the Museum of New Art, Pontiac, MI. The show is called Artistic Mediums: Revelations of the Invisible:

“Thomas Edison, the son of Spiritualists, proposed a telephone to call the dead. Contemporary post humanists seek to convert their souls into bits, or at least to prove that the meat is simply a container. Paranormal researchers, in particular those interested in EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena), argue that the electromagnetic spectrum is oft manipulated by the dead to communicate with the living – that intelligences live invisibly in the ether is a foregone conclusion.”

My piece for the show is a sound sculpture made of various junk and collaged audio, called “Sonnets from the Portugese.” Unfortunately I won’t make it to the opening, but if you happen to be near Pontiac, here’s directions to the gallery. The show will be up
until April 26th.

I’ll put documentation of all three of these noisy things up on this site after the weekend.

coney island band organ rally!

ranjit — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:41:59 +0000

This Sunday 3/16, noon to 4:30pm, the Coney Island Museum celebrates automatic music – organ grinders, player pianos, and more – at the Band Organ Rally. I’m building a brand new automatic instrument for the event, and bringing some older ones too. Sneak previews below.

something new

something old

Mister Resistor in Concert

ranjit — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:25:08 +0000

My Parsons students are playing a concert on Sunday the 16th – it’s also their final exam. Please come out and support them!

It’ll be 4pm, Dec. 16th at The Openhouse at 201 Mulberry Street in SoHo, Manhattan – just south of Spring Street.

Here’s a preview of what some of the students are working on.

Mister Resistor Preview 1 from ranjit on Vimeo.

Create Digital Music, Etsy Labs and Make Magazine present
A Very Special Handmade Music Night
featuring Mister Resistor live in concert
Sunday December 16th, 2-5pm
at The Openhouse, 201 Mulberry St near Spring St in SoHo
$FREE
more info at misterresistor.com or createdigitalmusic.com

Bring your hand-carved ocarinas, homebrew synthesizers, circuit bent toys and tin can banjos to show and tell and jam.

At 4pm, enjoy the handmade sonic stylings of Mister Resistor- these Parsons students have spent the semester building and playing musical instruments made from cassette tape, microchips, oatmeal boxes, and much more.

To help newcomers learn how to make their own creations, Create Digital Music’s Peter Kirn will lead off with a workshop on musical electronics, with free kits from PAiA Corporation that uses pencil markings to produce circuits. (No soldering required, so total beginners can give it a try. Kits for the project are free, on a first-come, first-served basis.) Throughout the afternoon, New York’s top musical makers will meet and display their creations.

music for people and thingamajigs, oakland

ranjit — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:47:35 +0000

I’ll be participating in the 10th Annual Festival of Music for People and Thingamajigs in Oakland, CA, September 28-30. This is one of the thingamajigs I’ll be bringing. This is another.

artbots philly reviewed

ranjit — Mon, 28 May 2007 23:12:38 +0000

There’s no attempt to create a humanoid with Misericordiam, by Ranjit Bhatnagar, an accordion hung from a rope. It compresses and, thanks to gravity, decompresses with a convulsive abandon. I don’t know if it had any other purpose than humor, but I didn’t feel like I needed more.

– roberta fallon and libby rosof’s artblog: The human side of artbots

bent festival

ranjit — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:25:10 +0000

I’m going to be at the Bent Festival this weekend. My band Mister Resistor is playing Saturday night and I’m going to be making some sort of site-specific sound sculpture on the spot during the festival. Both things are pretty much improvised, but there’s likely to be some of and perhaps a bit of and a large helping of .

Bent Festival New York City – April 26-28 2007
Presented by The Tank
All workshops and concerts will be held at
Eyebeam Atelier
540 W. 21st Street, (between 10th and 11th Avenues), NY, NY

greenmarket produce scans in edible brooklyn magazine

ranjit — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:12:31 +0000

Some of my vegevision has been featured in Edible Brooklyn magazine! More information about the project and about purchasing prints from the series can be found on the project page.

misericordiam at artbots philadelphia

ranjit — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 01:23:03 +0000

Misericordiam, the accordion robot, is in the Artbots show at the Klein Art Gallery, Philadelphia. The opening is this Friday the 13th of April, and the show runs until the end of June.

radio vessels at chelsea art museum

ranjit — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 01:17:52 +0000

My new sound sculpture piece is in the Ten Years Running show at the Chelsea Art Museum until April 14th.

13 years of photoblogging!

ranjit — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 19:24:28 +0000

I’ve been doing this since 1994! Thirteen years!

(Jan. 13, 1994: These photos were taken with a Hi8 camcorder and captured on a Mac Quadra AV – remember those? Back when digital still cameras were heavier and more expensive than camcorders!)

This photoset from later that month seems to have suffered from an attack of bit-moths.

Wow, remember when a 130K JPG was so big you had to post a warning?

Have you been posting your photos on the web for a long long time? Please leave a comment!

saturday: mister resistor reunion concert

ranjit — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 21:38:23 +0000

My class’s band, Mister Resistor, is playing again this Saturday night, 7 and 8:30, at Flux Factory! Come and listen until your ears bleed!

It’s FREE, and there will be booze, popcorn, and homemade ice cream!

dec 1-22: response to tatlin’s monument to the third international conceived in the mood of ambivalence

ranjit — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 04:03:12 +0000

I’m participating in the Response to Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International Conceived in the Mood of Ambivalence over at Flux Factory. It’s going to be a strange and wonderful show. The opening party will be on Friday Dec. 1, 7-10pm.

More pictures after the opening!

Listen to music and live audio from the gallery thusly

Nov. 9-12: misericordiam at artbots nyc

ranjit — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 04:16:27 +0000

~~Wheeze~~ “Misericordiam” (new name! “Cordy” for short.), the hovering accordion from the Fluxbox project, will be groaning and heaving at the Artbots 2006 NYC show. As the ArtBots page says:

ArtBots is very happy to announce a regional NYC show as part of the science+art festival 2006 this fall. The show will feature works old and new by eight New York artists who have appeared in previous ArtBots shows.

When:
Thursday-Sunday November 9-12, 2006, Noon-6pm
Opening reception Thursday November 9th, 6-8pm

Where:
Location One
26 Greene Street (between Canal and Grand)
New York City!

How much:
$$$FREE$$$

Come see wheeze and a bunch of other marvelous art machines!

Oct 19: lev at auto+matos

ranjit — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 03:42:15 +0000

I’ll be presenting Lev, the theremin-playing robot, at the AUTO+MATOS show at New York University on Thursday, Oct. 19. Come see singing, dancing, performing robots! Best of all, it’s free!

Behold sensational innovations in the fields of movement, science, and art in an evening of noise, high impact dance, and robotics. Visitors are encouraged to interact with robots, experimenting with noise and paint, and to observe the vigorous and propellent dance of STREB.
– from the AUTO+MATOS web site

The exhibition will take place the evening of Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 6:30pm in the Eisner Lubin Auditorium of the NYU Kimmel Center (60 Washington Square South, 4th Floor). Get tickets at the door or from NYU Ticket Central.

brooklyn in color in brooklyn

ranjit — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:02:41 +0000

An exhibit of some of my Brooklyn photos has been installed in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue subway station through the MTA’s Arts for Transit program. The exhibit is open 24 hours a day through 2007 for the price of a subway ride, so go take a look!

a brand new moonmilk

ranjit — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 22:43:46 +0000

after a few years of neglect, I finally relaunched moonmilk.com today! See the about page for a bit of moonmilk history.

sketching in hardware

ranjit — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 18:29:18 +0000

I attended the Sketching in Hardware conference, ably organized by Judith, Mike, and Liz. My presentation was about being a cheapskate. Also I got to see the Wienermobile.

fluxbox reviewed in Rail

ranjit — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 18:43:05 +0000

There’s a nice review of the Fluxbox in the June issue of the Brooklyn Rail.

The FluxBox, which was on view at the Flux Factory in Queens from March 25 to April 29, triggered a greater feeling of suspense than your everyday automata. Not because it was a room-sized version of something that usually fits in your hand, but because the only visible part of the box from the entrance was the crank, and the crank was wired to a kosher pickle. more…
- Bethany Ryker

sketching device at LHS

ranjit — Thu, 18 May 2006 18:20:56 +0000

SD#1 got a gig at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, CA:

Art Meets Science, May 18, 2006

mister resistor at fluxbox

ranjit — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 18:09:45 +0000

My class’s band Mister Resistor played a noisy and inspiring gig at the Flux Factory tonight.

sketching device at PASS

ranjit — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 18:20:57 +0000

The sketching machine was exhibited as part of the Robotix’s Festival at Parc d’aventures scientifiques, a Belgian science museum.

See all the other installations at the Robotix’s site

fluxbox at the flux factory

ranjit — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 19:16:12 +0000

Our massive musical installation, fluxbox, was up at the Flux Factory from March 25th to April 29th.

[more details to come]

The FluxBox Experience, WMV on Vimeo

fluxbox preview in Time Out

ranjit — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 18:45:34 +0000

Time Out New York has a nice preview of our fluxbox installation.

Music boxes are typically small, delicate items, but imagine creating one large enough to walk through. The Flux Factory, a Queens-based nonprofit exhibition space and artists collective/habitat, has done just that with its latest installation, FluxBox. Instead of a standard “tooth and comb” apparatus, however, seven acoustic sculptures produce the show’s simple 16-bar melody. more…