Video games form a central part of the cultural vernacular for the generation of artists and musicians who grew up in the pixelated world of the 1980s. The reinvention and reinterpretation of 80s gaming technology by this generation, over the past ten years, is the focus of 8 Bit, a new documentary by Marcin Ramocki premiering this weekend at New York's MoMA. Ramocki travelled to Los Angeles, New York, Paris, and Tokyo to capture the birth and growth of this wide-ranging DIY phenomenon, which began with the 1980s demo scene and continues on with chip-tune music, machinima, and modified computer games. Participants in the film include Christiane Paul, Alex Galloway, Tree Wave, Role Model, Cory Arcangel, BIT SHIFTER, Glomag, Ed Halter, Nullsleep, Mary Flanagan, TEAMTENDO, Carlo Zanni, John Kilma, Covox, and others, many of whom will be present at the October 7th screening. Practically all of the artists interviewed share a common fascination with the limitations imposed by outmoded technologies. The creation of a discernable aesthetic quality out of the boundaries of a medium squarely places this particular practice in the terrain of a continuing theme within art history. - Ceci Moss
