all words: Ryma Chikhoune
all photos: Shauna Alexander

The Creator’s Project, a collaboration between VICE and Intel that aims to “empower emerging and leading artists who are pushing the boundaries of creative expression through technology,” returned to New York this weekend, transforming DUMBO, Brooklyn into a two-day festival full of music, art and technology.

The music lineup, headlined by Florence + the Machine and Justice, was limited to two outdoor stages, the archway under the Brooklyn Bridge and the Tobacco Warehouse, a roofless, brick space in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The Powerhouse Arena, a gallery, bookstore and events space, held film screenings, including Scenes from the Suburbs by Spike Jonze and Arcade Fire, as well as the media/VIP section, while the area inside 55 Washington featured DJ sets and interactive art installations.

BYT kicked off the weekend inside St. Ann’s Warehouse on Friday night for The Creator Project’s production of Stop The Virgens. The psycho-opera, co-created by Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) in a collaboration with design director KK Barrett, and directed by Pulitzer Prize-finalist Adam Rapp, is described as “an assault on the tragic joys of youth spun through a cycle of nine new songs.”

While we expected the show to be more interactive than it ended up being, it certainly doesn’t disappoint. It’s beautiful, dark, mesmerizing and worth a viewing. (It runs through October 22.)

On Saturday, Chairlift, A$AP Rocky, Four Tet and Florence + The Machine played the archway, but for us, the day began and would end in the Tobacco Warehouse (Atlas Sound, Company Flow), where Justice’s set was cut short when police shut down all live shows (which was to include a midnight performance from Erykah Badu and Yeasayer).

“Fuck the police,” chanted the rowdy twenty-somethings, as Justice left the stage. The crowd was told to head to 55 Washington for a DJ set by Juan MacLean, while staff/VIP partied inside Powerhouse (Josh Hartnett, MGMT).

The notable art installations included Life on Mars Revisited, an engrossing short film of David Bowie’s classic, by music photographer Mick Rock and filmmaker Barney Clay; A Physical Manifestation of Ladies and Gentleman, We Are Floating in Space, “a cathedral-like physical manifestation” of the song created by Spiritualized’s J. Spaceman and film director Jonathan Glazer, with architectural design from Undisclosable and creative/technical realization from One of Us; and Origin, an impressive 40 foot audiovisual installation by UVA and composer Scanner.

The Best: Justice
Runner up: Yuksek
The Worst: Teen Daze (Turns out, you’d rather listen through headphones than see live.)