The Creators Project in Dumbo

Art, music, film.

The only thing that’s better than these three things on their own, is these three things combined. Add in a set by Florence & the Machine under the Manhattan Bridge and I was sold on a visit to The Creators Project event in Dumbo, held this past weekend. It’s a global arts initiative, created by Vice Magazine and Intel, as a way to support artists, musicians, and filmmakers who are using technology to push the bounds of creative expression.

The project comes to New York after mixing with cultural institutions in Beijing, Brazil and France, including Bienal in Sao Paulo, Nuits Sonores in Lyon and La Gaité Lyrique in Paris. Dumbo played host to various art installations, sound experiences and films.

The image above is the piece Origin from United Visual Artists, which they constructed for Coachella, based on the question of whether something could be designed to act as a main-stage but also as an artwork. It was incredible to listen to Justice DJing as the lights of the installation created an illuminated sensory dance experience, right next to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Florence Welch and her band of merrimen(t) performing under the Manhattan Bridge was an inspired move and her voice filled the tunnel spectacularly. She played a few of the new songs on her forthcoming album, due out next month, as well as the tracks we fell for when Lungs first came out in 2009.

Another highlights was Spike Jonze’s Scenes from the Suburbs, one of the films that was screening at the event. It takes the concept behind Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year in February, and plays it out on the big screen with teenagers and SWAT teams.

At the end of the night we went past this visual representation of the hashtag #creators. Our pics of it were up in an instant, added to the pile on the wall.

For more on The Creators Project, click here.