As you saw from my brief preview yesterday, The Creators Project launch at Milk Studios on Saturday night was the only place in the world to be. Artists, musicians, filmmakers and their fans (including celebs Kirsten Dunst and Josh Hartnett) gathered at the studio in Chelsea for the multimedia event of the year featuring interactive art installations, film screenings, DJ sets and a laudable line-up of bands.

In a press release, The Creators Project was described as “a new initiative by VICE and Intel to identify leading artists across the world who are pushing creative boundaries through technology. The project establishes new platforms for these artists to showcase their work and to engage a young audience of millions.”

The event stretched across a total of 5 floors and pleasantly devoured 12 hours of my weekend. Photography has been broken up into two galleries: one for the exhibitions and one for the performances along with a write-up describing each.

The Creators Project goes International on July 17th in London before making stops at Brazil on August 14th, South Korea on August 28th and China on September 17th. For more info visit The Creators Project and follow @CreatorsProject on Twitter.

The Exhbitions: full gallery

The Digital Flesh installation by Radical Friend exhibit was my favorite installation, an otherworldly experience that captures the digital imprint of the participant and incorporates it as part of the piece. Triptych and Hereafter by the United Visual Artists along with the Cube by Multi Randolph also invited viewers to become part of the art, combining lights and sound beautifully along with space,  perception and the manipulation of it.

We’ve all seen Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ guitarist Nick Zinner snap photos of the crowd onstage, so it was of no surprise to see his audio/visual photography wing A.D.A.B.A. What did surprise me was how modest about discussing his talent. Other exhibitions of note were xx: A Sculpture of the Album and of course the Spike Jonze short I’m Here.

The Performances: full gallery

The first performance of the night proceeded Spike Jonze‘s film when the screen lifted to reveal Aska Matsumiya (the featured band in the short.) At 6PM The Rapture played the loading dock of Milk Studios and although it was packed people didn’t dance they just stood around like this [arms crossed.] The new line-up sounded great, especially when covering tracks from their dancey, cowbell-heavy record Pieces of The People We Love.

At about 5 hours into The Creators Project I skipped out on Gang Gang Dance for some rooftop relaxation before heading down to the 2nd Floor Gallery for Sleigh Bells. I chose a spot in the crowd rather than the photo pit in favor of dancing and thrashing out and in doing so I wore myself out, causing  me to only see tail-end performances by Interpol and Die Antwoord. I redeemed myself when getting a prime spot for M.I.A. though!

M.I.A. took the stage at around midnight and played nearly an hour-long set of new and old songs. As always it was an intense madhouse for her set, when she gets onstage it’s a total adrenaline rush. The new material sounded fantastic live, especially the Derek Miller (Sleigh Bells) collaboration Meds and Feds and Teqkilla (in which a bottle was passed around.) Guests Rye Rye and Ninjasonik also helped step up the performance another notch, which was the perfect cap on the event for me. Bruised, battered and pumped I wandered into the 1st Floor Gallery for Mark Ronson‘s performance while none other than MNDR wrapped her surprise appearance with Fade to Black.

The Creators Project was almost too good to be true, bringing together people of all shapes, sizes and color for the love of art. After a 12-hour day at The Milk Studios, I was in recuperation mode but the memories and smile on my face still subside two days later. I wonder if I can get vacation time to follow this traveling circus around the world..?

mp3: M.I.A. – Bamboo Banga

mp3: Interpol – Rest My Chemistry

mp3: The Rapture – House of Jealous Lovers

mp3: Aska Matsumiya – There Are Many of Us