Bloktoberfest: Teletext Art Festival at Wigan STEAM

Saturday 20th October 12-4pm & Sunday 21st October 10am - 4pm

Pixel pushers rejoice – the next Block Party has been confirmed! This year, Britain’s premier teletext festival will venture ‘up north’ to Wigan STEAM for a weekend of VBI, Videotext and Viewdata jollities. Suitable for all the family, drop in to explore the phenomenon that is teletext art, meet teletext artists from around the globe, and participate in all sorts of teletext related pixel art activities!

Admission to the event is FREE, but to participate in drop-in art activities we recommend donating £2 per participant to cover costs. There will also be book-on workshops advertised closer to the time.

What will be there?

• Resident Teletext Artists: we have teletext artists you can chat to, see at work and get tips from before trying teletext art for yourself!

• Pixel art activities - make your own teletext coasters from hama beads, build teletext with Lego, and add your own teletext artworks to Teefax!

• The broadcast teletext archive: services spanning 42 years of actual teletext pages, all recovered from domestic videotape. Find out how it’s done and see pages from the dawn of teletext.
  

• A closed-circuit teletext system: teletext as you remember it: a TV set with four channels where and you can press ‘Text’ on the remote on each channel and enter its teletext service!
  

• Teefax: an online teletext service updated by enthusiasts which, using the Raspberry Pi, you can pipe into your teletext TV at home and watch teletext. It’s also available online!
  

• Teletext hardware, enhanced teletext and live subtitling

Who will be there?

Carl Attrill (@that_other_Carl): A long-time teletext artist whose work makes up for its rarity with its originality and skill in the medium.

Alistair Cree (@ZXGuesser): Alistair’s online teletext page editor supports enhanced, or Level 2.5, teletext, which is no mean feat given the complexities of the medium! Find out what Level 2.5 teletext is, how it works and what it can do.

Dan Farrimond (@illarterate): Credited with keeping the medium alive during its wilderness years, digital artist Dan is one of the UK’s most experienced teletext artists and teletext art’s premier cheerleader.

Horsenburger (@Horsenburger): Steve Horsley is an ex-Teletext Ltd. teletext artist and currently the most prolific artist in the medium, having created hundreds (thousands?) of teletext pages of graphics. Come and see an expert at work, then try your hand at teletext art yourself!

Peter Kwan (@PeterKVT80): Peter worked in the teletext industry providing teletext hardware and software solutions to the broadcasters.

Raquel Meyers (@raquelmeyers): Text mode expert Raquel is a winner of the International Teletext Art Festival’s Special Achievement Award, and has conducted studies on the contextual history of teletext as an artform.

Jason Robertson (@grim_fandango): The Teletext Archaeologist will be around to chat and show the broadcast teletext archive recovered from domestic videotapes from the last 42 years. Want to see teletext from a particular channel on a certain year? Just ask!