The SubZero street event all along South First Street on Friday (June 6) night was Bohemian cyberlicious crème de la crème of the entire 01SJ Festival and easily the hippest thing to hit downtown San Jose since the first SoFA Street Fair in 1992.

All the galleries showcased tech-related zonked-out works; bands performed on three stages; videos projected on buildings; booths and interactive exhibits flanked three blocks; and the widest possible variety of people showed up: kids, adults, hipsters, corporate types, Burners, artists, politicians, programmers and the lunatic fringe. The entire vibe was hi-tech, planetary, abstractly machinic and, although totally safe and sanitized, still pretty damn rocking. It was part SoFA Street Fair circa early-'90s, part Mondo2000 Magazine-era cyberpunk counterculture and part field trip for the school kids.

Each gallery counted around a thousand patrons crossing their thresholds, and the street remained lively up until at least 11pm. Many adults stayed out way past their usual bedtimes and many of the younger folks looked like they were digging it so much that they just didn't want to leave until the last person was gone. Man, I remember that feeling ...

As I paraded up and down, in and around the crowds, I overheard several common, seemingly universal observations from the throngs of people. They were saying: "This is like San Francisco." Or, "I can't believe this is San Jose," or "Why didn't they do this a long time ago?" And, especially, "Hey, there's not ten thousand cops here. What happened?"

Aside from that, other aspects were blatantly obvious. There were no fights, no troublemakers and no unruly losers showing up just to start fights. It was all totally peaceful. Even better, the police presence was hardly even noticeable at all. You saw a few officers here and there, but there was no overwhelming tidal wave of police like you would normally see. Many, many people repeatedly kept pointing this out.

The whole event was so successful that many people just couldn't believe San Jose had actually gotten one right for a change. There was simply nothing to screw it up.

The SubZero street event all along South First Street was the bohemian cyberlicious crème de la crème of the entire festival and easily the hippest thing to hit downtown San Jose since the first SoFA Street Fair in 1992. All the galleries showcased tech-related zonked-out works; bands performed on three stages; videos projected on buildings; booths and interactive exhibits flanked three blocks and the widest possible variety of people showed up: kids, adults, hipsters, corporate types, Burners, artists, politicians, programmers and the lunatic fringe. The entire vibe was hi-tech, planetary, abstractly machinic, and although totally safe and sanitized, still pretty damn rocking. It was part SoFA Street Fair circa early-90s, part Mondo2000 Magazine-era cyberpunk counterculture and part field trip for the school kids.

Each gallery counted around a thousand patrons crossing their thresholds and the street remained lively up until at least 11pm. Many adults stayed out way past their usual bed times, and many of the younger folks looked like they were digging it so much, that they just didn't want to leave until the last person was gone. Man, I remember that feeling ...

As I paraded up and down, in and around the crowds, I overheard several common, seemingly universal observations from the throngs of people. They were saying: "This is like San Francisco." Or, "I can't believe this is San Jose," or "Why didn't they do this a long time ago?" And especially, "Hey, there's not 10,000 cops here. What happened?"

Aside from that, other aspects were blatantly obvious. There were no fights, no troublemakers and no unruly losers showing up just to start fights. It was all totally peaceful. Even better, the police presence was hardly even noticeable at all. You saw a few officers here and there, but there was no overwhelming tidal wave of police like you would normally see. Many, many people repeatedly kept pointing this out. The whole event was so successful that many people just couldn't believe San Jose had actually gotten one right for a change. There was simply nothing to screw it up.

What I Saw at SubZero in Just an Hour

By Michael S. Gant

Art cars lined up in front of MACLA, proving that when gas goes over $5 a galleon, as least our guzzlers will be cool to look at. One converted boxy wagon was welded up with stamped-tin ceiling tiles, old decorative wrought iron and rams' horns—Mad Max Meets Soccer Mom. Another sedan boasted thousands of computer RAM chips plastered on every available inch that wasn't full of row and rows of little C02 cylinders. Another block up, I talked about futuristic marketing strategies with artist Michelle Pred. She creates 2D bar codes (they look like patterns of dominos) in a variety of media (even stitched cloth will work) embedded with artistic parables. Photograph one with a web-enabled phone and it takes you to her website and you'll get an offbeat text message in return.

A couple of savvy gear heads were putting a robotic arm through its paces. The device grips an Ex-acto knife and makes slices through a piece of tissue paper. Maybe not that practical, but fun to watch. A guy with an old portable typewriter (no electricity required) was offering to create customized poems on the spot. A street musician from San Francisco showed off his percussion skills on a tabletop full of battered old metal pots. Graffiti artists created works in progress on handy sheets of plywood. A sound-activated drawing device wheeled in crazy zigzags dragging a market pen across a piece of paper in response to the claps and shouts of passersby. The kids loved this one. The louder they way, the crazier the squiggles.

There was even poetry in a Beat vein at the Laundromat.

What all of this had to do precisely with the digital arts being promoted by 01SJ hardly matters. The creative vibe was running high, and people where reclaiming at least a small corridor from the rush of commuter traffic.

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