Making music with old technology

The streets of Old City will come alive with sound in the form of “Chiptunes — Obsolete Sounds in the Modern World” during the next First Friday.

The sounds are generated by such “instruments” as video game consoles and vintage computers. 

Musician Chipocrite, aka Paul Weinstein, will be performing the chiptunes that he describes as “music inspired by, or even directly created with, onboard sound capabilities of old video game systems.”

So intrigued with the new musical genre was Lisa Klarr that she is presenting a doctoral dissertation titled “Useless: The Aesthetics of Obsolescence in 20th-Century U.S. Culture” this fall. Klarr says she is also fascinated because “chiptune artists also effectively elevate the Nintendo and the GameBoy to the level of an instrument.”

NewsWorks Tonight anchor Dave Heller chats with Klarr and Weinstein about what awaits First Friday visitors. 

Presented by the Chemical Heritage Foundation, “Chiptunes — Obsolete Sounds in the Modern World” takes place from 5 to 8 p.m.