Joshua Davis – Image by John via Flickr

I’m back from the OFFF and had a wonderful time. First to say, that Lisbon is an amazingly pretty city. I actually plan to come back sometime later this year and recommend everyone to visit this city.

Like always on conferences there are ups and downs. Besides the obvious facts like lame speakers and organization issues it’s sometimes hard (at least for me) to keep the pressure up a whole conference day especially since having loots of beers at night seems to be an integral element of those conferences… ;)

However, for me this year OFFF was great! After the more concrete flashforum konferenz one week earlier the OFFF was just inspiring and looking beyond. Here some highlights for me (Note that I had to skip the third day so it is only about the first two days):

James Paterson & Amit Pitaru
For me this session made the conference! You HAVE TO check out this sound tool. You can even play the low-fi version online. Maybe something for the hobnox Audiotool guys. :) That’s the reason I visit these conferences. Seeing things I wasn’t even dreaming of. Also the weird online world between Monty Python and Yellow Submarine James did, I love it.

UnitedVisualArtists
UVA show some amazing installations. Especially the sound reactive LED tower in front of museum caught my mind (seems to be not online yet). Check out the website for some beautiful light shows.

Robert L. Peters
Unlike Neville Brody, whom I find kind of unspectacular, Peters somehow touched me with the things he said, the products he talked about and the quotes he showed. Some wise words from a guy who knows how to do graphic design before there was the internet (or even computers).

PES
Just watch this:

Do I need to say more…? :D Everyone who does not know him, check out his YouTube channel.

Joshua Davis
Same shit, different year. But what can I say, again, he delivered! Without showing to much new stuff, he still totally caught the crowd, including standing ovations at the end, right when he was showing the last slide with white “rock on” letters on red background. Pure entertainment.

Overall, lots of reasons to come back next year. See you there!

Some impressions

Image by Marc Thiele via Flickr

Joshua Davis – Image by offf via Flickr

James & Amit – Image by John via Flickr

Aron – Image by Dorian