{ "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/in-retrospect/omar-afra-day-for-night-houston-new-media-art#article", "recordType": "RetrospectiveEssay", "canonical": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/in-retrospect/omar-afra-day-for-night-houston-new-media-art", "alternate": { "html": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/in-retrospect/omar-afra-day-for-night-houston-new-media-art", "json": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/in-retrospect/omar-afra-day-for-night-houston-new-media-art.json" }, "recordPublisher": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/#archive-organization", "name": "Free Press Houston Archive" }, "about": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/#organization", "name": "Free Press Houston" }, "slug": "omar-afra-day-for-night-houston-new-media-art", "section": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/in-retrospect#collection", "name": "In Retrospect", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/in-retrospect" }, "kind": "First-person account", "title": "Omar Afra on Day for Night and Houston’s New-Media Art Moment", "subtitle": "A first-person account by Day for Night co-founder Omar Afra on the festival’s origins, its visual-art program, the artists and collaborators who shaped it, and the attempt to build something in Houston that existed somewhere between a music festival, an exhibition and a large-scale digital-art environment.", "description": "A first-person account by Day for Night co-founder Omar Afra: the festival’s origins, its visual-art program, and Houston’s new-media art moment, 2015–2017.", "datePublished": "2026-09-11", "dateModified": "2026-09-11", "author": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/contributors/omar-afra#person", "name": "Omar Afra", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/contributors/omar-afra" }, "productionNote": "This piece was written collaboratively by Omar Afra and AI Mind Control.", "keywords": [ "Day for Night", "Omar Afra", "Houston new media art", "digital art festival", "Kiffer Keegan", "Alex Czetwertynski", "Barbara Jordan Post Office", "Houston music festivals" ], "aboutEntities": [ { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/entities/day-for-night#entity", "name": "Day for Night", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/entities/day-for-night" }, { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/#organization", "name": "Free Press Houston", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/entities/free-press-houston" }, { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/entities/free-press-summer-fest#entity", "name": "Free Press Summer Fest", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/entities/free-press-summer-fest" } ], "figures": [ { "id": "photo-dfn-2016-press-kaskade-bajsel", "title": "Day for Night, 2016 — photograph", "alt": "Kaskade performing at Day for Night 2016, photographed by Julian Bajsel.", "caption": "Kaskade performing at Day for Night 2016 · Photograph by Julian Bajsel", "note": null, "credit": "Julian Bajsel", "kind": "Photograph", "file": { "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/__l5e/assets-v1/a425337b-c67e-43c2-b4a8-3231a7aca26e/dfn16-kaskade-julian-bajsel.jpg", "held": true, "checksum": null, "checksumNote": "No checksum: the file is served from the archive's remote asset store and its bytes are not held in the repository that computes fixity.", "width": null, "height": null }, "date": null, "year": 2016, "record": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/photo-dfn-2016-press-kaskade-bajsel#object", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/photo-dfn-2016-press-kaskade-bajsel" }, "related": [ { "label": "Day for Night", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/collections/day-for-night" } ], "provenance": "Recovered from Free Press Houston correspondence. Held file 2048×1365, 724,167 bytes, sha256 8ff14273220bf49ac55982169cdb245acb071fd2a2523b63d966789b2932bad0. Recovered from Free Press Houston correspondence of October 18, 2017; see archival document dfn-2017-press-photo-bundle for the message record.", "sourceUrl": null }, { "id": "photo-dfn-2016-press-odesza-bajsel", "title": "Day for Night, 2016 — photograph", "alt": "ODESZA performing at Day for Night 2016, photographed by Julian Bajsel.", "caption": "ODESZA performing at Day for Night 2016 · Photograph by Julian Bajsel", "note": null, "credit": "Julian Bajsel", "kind": "Photograph", "file": { "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/__l5e/assets-v1/32d120ac-7208-4ba1-8d20-f4ab4b9f361a/dfn16-odesza-julian-bajsel.jpg", "held": true, "checksum": null, "checksumNote": "No checksum: the file is served from the archive's remote asset store and its bytes are not held in the repository that computes fixity.", "width": null, "height": null }, "date": null, "year": 2016, "record": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/photo-dfn-2016-press-odesza-bajsel#object", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/photo-dfn-2016-press-odesza-bajsel" }, "related": [ { "label": "Day for Night", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/collections/day-for-night" } ], "provenance": "Recovered from Free Press Houston correspondence. Held file 2048×1365, 454,636 bytes, sha256 b77224946782bf843578aa470567464476f670fc38e6f9ee653787ffc78d03a3. Recovered from Free Press Houston correspondence of October 18, 2017; see archival document dfn-2017-press-photo-bundle for the message record.", "sourceUrl": null }, { "id": "dfn-2016-lineup-poster", "title": "Day for Night, 2016 — poster", "alt": "Day for Night 2016 official lineup poster", "caption": "Day for Night 2016 official lineup poster. Black vertical sheet with the concentric teal circular mark, reading DEC 17–18, 2016, Houston, TX and www.DayforNight.io; the SOUND list opens Aphex Twin, ODESZA, Björk Digital, Kaskade, Travis Scott, and Nick Murphy, and the LIGHT list opens United Visual Artists, Björk Digital, Golan Levin, and Nonotak, beneath the Consequence of Sound quote \"America's most exciting new festival\". Supplied to the archive by Omar Afra.", "note": null, "credit": null, "kind": "Poster", "file": { "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/__l5e/assets-v1/a40619f0-13f4-439a-b4be-d8db282e8f1f/dfn-2016-official-poster.jpg", "held": true, "checksum": null, "checksumNote": "No checksum: the file is served from the archive's remote asset store and its bytes are not held in the repository that computes fixity.", "width": 1175, "height": 1552 }, "date": null, "year": 2016, "record": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/dfn-2016-lineup-poster#object", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/dfn-2016-lineup-poster" }, "related": [ { "label": "Day for Night 2016", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/events/day-for-night-2016" }, { "label": "Day for Night", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/collections/day-for-night" } ], "provenance": "Held in the archive's own festival material.", "sourceUrl": null }, { "id": "dfn-2015-lineup-poster", "title": "Day for Night, 2015 — poster", "alt": "Day for Night 2015 official lineup poster", "caption": "Day for Night 2015 official lineup poster. Black sheet with the cyan Day for Night circular mark; the SOUND list opens Kendrick Lamar, New Order, Philip Glass Ensemble, Dillon Francis, and the LIGHT list opens Casey Reas and Zach Lieberman. Supplied to the archive by Omar Afra.", "note": "The first edition's poster: the SOUND list opens Kendrick Lamar and New Order, the LIGHT list Casey Reas and Zach Lieberman.", "credit": null, "kind": "Poster", "file": { "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/__l5e/assets-v1/13c45a54-2fe7-4fa7-b7c4-832da9023e1c/dfn-2015-official-poster.png", "held": true, "checksum": null, "checksumNote": "No checksum: the file is served from the archive's remote asset store and its bytes are not held in the repository that computes fixity.", "width": 739, "height": 739 }, "date": null, "year": 2015, "record": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/dfn-2015-lineup-poster#object", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/dfn-2015-lineup-poster" }, "related": [ { "label": "Day for Night 2015", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/events/day-for-night-2015" }, { "label": "Day for Night", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/collections/day-for-night" } ], "provenance": "Held in the archive's own festival material.", "sourceUrl": null }, { "id": "dfn-2017-lineup-poster", "title": "Day for Night, 2017 — poster", "alt": "Day for Night 2017 official lineup poster", "caption": "Day for Night 2017 official lineup poster. Black vertical sheet set in red and white type with the split circular Day for Night mark, reading December 15–17, 2017, Houston, Texas and www.DayforNight.io; the SOUND list is headed Nine Inch Nails, Thom Yorke, Solange, Justice, St. Vincent, Tyler, the Creator, James Blake, Pretty Lights, Jamie xx and Phantogram, and the LIGHT list opens Ryoji Ikeda, Matthew Schreiber, Conditional Studio + Processing Foundation and James Clar. Supplied to the archive by Omar Afra.", "note": "The 2017 sheet prints the two programmes as parallel halves of one identity: SOUND headed by Nine Inch Nails, Thom Yorke, Solange, Justice and St. Vincent, LIGHT opening with Ryoji Ikeda, Matthew Schreiber, Conditional Studio + Processing Foundation and James Clar.", "credit": null, "kind": "Poster", "file": { "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/__l5e/assets-v1/c1eee291-6bf8-4a79-bebb-f66bcb2a02be/dfn-2017-official-poster.png", "held": true, "checksum": null, "checksumNote": "No checksum: the file is served from the archive's remote asset store and its bytes are not held in the repository that computes fixity.", "width": 452, "height": 678 }, "date": null, "year": 2017, "record": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/dfn-2017-lineup-poster#object", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/dfn-2017-lineup-poster" }, "related": [ { "label": "Day for Night 2017", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/events/day-for-night-2017" }, { "label": "Day for Night", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/collections/day-for-night" } ], "provenance": "Held in the archive's own festival material.", "sourceUrl": null }, { "id": "dfn-2017-schedule-grid", "title": "Day for Night, 2017 — schedule", "alt": "Day for Night 2017 schedule grid, one page, circulated December 14, 2017", "caption": "Day for Night 2017 schedule grid, one page, circulated December 14, 2017. Columns are set by day — Friday Dec 15, Saturday Dec 16, Sunday Dec 17 — and by stage: RED 17k, GREEN 9k, BLUE 6k, YELLOW 2k, with a Friday Summit block running 4:00–7:00. The sheet is headed FINAL PENDING and carries a status key reading CONFIRMED / LIKELY / OFFER SENT / IDEAS, so it records the schedule as it stood on the eve of the festival rather than a settled final programme.", "note": "The one-page schedule grid for the third edition, with the installation programme timed alongside the stages.", "credit": null, "kind": "Schedule", "file": { "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/day-for-night/2017/dfn-2017-schedule-grid.jpg", "held": true, "sha256": "e009d25eb84a12ce3ed9aa075f2d4f178ca31dbdf81e7405793619e4b1c75be2", "bytes": 285092, "checksumComputedOn": "2026-09-04", "width": 2000, "height": 1545 }, "date": null, "year": 2017, "record": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/dfn-2017-schedule-grid#object", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/dfn-2017-schedule-grid" }, "related": [ { "label": "Day for Night 2017", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/events/day-for-night-2017" }, { "label": "Day for Night", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/collections/day-for-night" } ], "provenance": "Recovered from /day-for-night/2017/DFN-GRID-2017-12-14-FINAL-PENDING.pdf.", "sourceUrl": "/day-for-night/2017/DFN-GRID-2017-12-14-FINAL-PENDING.pdf" }, { "id": "dfn-2017-relix-fullpage", "title": "Day for Night, 2017 — printed ephemera", "alt": "Relix full-page advertisement for Day for Night 2017, printing December 15–17, 2017, Houston, Texas, the SOUND", "caption": "Relix full-page advertisement for Day for Night 2017, printing December 15–17, 2017, Houston, Texas, the SOUND and LIGHT lineups and www.DayForNight.io. Recovered from Free Press Houston correspondence dated October 18, 2017.", "note": "A full-page advertisement in a national music title for the third edition.", "credit": null, "kind": "Printed ephemera", "file": { "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/__l5e/assets-v1/34d38b17-ad81-4271-9abe-99ca24cb78cc/dfn-2017-relix-fullpage.jpg", "held": true, "checksum": null, "checksumNote": "No checksum: the file is served from the archive's remote asset store and its bytes are not held in the repository that computes fixity.", "width": 1432, "height": 1807 }, "date": null, "year": 2017, "record": { "@id": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/dfn-2017-relix-fullpage#object", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/objects/dfn-2017-relix-fullpage" }, "related": [ { "label": "Day for Night 2017", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/events/day-for-night-2017" }, { "label": "Day for Night", "url": "https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/collections/day-for-night" } ], "provenance": "Recovered from /day-for-night/2017/17_0927_DFN_relix_fullpage.pdf.", "sourceUrl": "/day-for-night/2017/17_0927_DFN_relix_fullpage.pdf" } ] }