Culture Hack East creates prototype for UK
Harlow Sculpture Map
Creative Front Cambridgeshire produced the first-ever culture 'hackathon' in the East region at Anglia Ruskin in June 2012. Culture Hack East was run with national partners Caper and funded by Arts Council England.
The aim of the event was to ensure that arts organisations in the region are up to date with the latest advances in technology and recognise the relevance and benefits for their businesses. Clare Denham, Creative Front Co-ordinator, explained: "It is essential that our regional arts businesses are technology-savvy. Culture Hack East aims to demonstrate just how accessible these emerging technologies are and that digitising content can be achieved relatively simply and applied to meet the needs of cultural organisations."
18 arts organisations worked with 25 developers to create 15 rapid-prototypes. These included two digital maps created from a printed map of the Harlow Arts Trust's Sculpture Trail. One team created a mobile app, Harlow Art Trail (pictured), which enabled visitors to discover sculptures, find their location on a map and follow the trail around the town. The second designed Sculptour, which works as a virtual sticker book. Visitors view the sculptures, collect pictures and unlock them in a personal art book. The prototype used data from Firstsite, a Contemporary Visual Arts venue in Colchester, who have since met the team to develop the idea further. Games designer Diogo Neves and User Experience designer Gary Aston created Goldrush, a treasure hunt game that allowed families to explore the venue.
The aim of the event was to ensure that arts organisations in the region are up to date with the latest advances in technology and recognise the relevance and benefits for their businesses. Clare Denham, Creative Front Co-ordinator, explained: "It is essential that our regional arts businesses are technology-savvy. Culture Hack East aims to demonstrate just how accessible these emerging technologies are and that digitising content can be achieved relatively simply and applied to meet the needs of cultural organisations."
18 arts organisations worked with 25 developers to create 15 rapid-prototypes. These included two digital maps created from a printed map of the Harlow Arts Trust's Sculpture Trail. One team created a mobile app, Harlow Art Trail (pictured), which enabled visitors to discover sculptures, find their location on a map and follow the trail around the town. The second designed Sculptour, which works as a virtual sticker book. Visitors view the sculptures, collect pictures and unlock them in a personal art book. The prototype used data from Firstsite, a Contemporary Visual Arts venue in Colchester, who have since met the team to develop the idea further. Games designer Diogo Neves and User Experience designer Gary Aston created Goldrush, a treasure hunt game that allowed families to explore the venue.
Billy Gibson of Live Cambridge
Other tools were developed with the aim of helping arts organisations better understand their data. Harry Harrold from Neon Tribe created a series of heat maps to visualise ticket booking information for venues such as the Junction. These heat maps show the distribution of visitors to Cambridge arts and cultural activities from across the UK using booking and travel information.
The event, which included interactive talks with professionals from the arts, culture and technology including Raspberry Pi, ARM, Metis Arts and our own Acting Director Rob Toulson, was hailed as a success by national leaders of the Culture Hack Programme. Rachel Coldicutt of Caper said:
"The development of the Culture Hack East programme is already influencing plans for other regional UK Culture Hacks. The organisational development work with the participating organisations increased both the quality of the data and the amount of hands-on involvement from the cultural organisations. We feel that this model will have the greatest long-term impact on the digital capacity of the Eastern region, and is a model we will continue to develop and roll-out throughout the UK."
To reinforce the benefits of collaboration between arts and technologies, the delegates were treated to a performance by artists Circumstance of their 'Of Sleeping Birds', part of the Visualise public arts programme. Using satellite positioning software to form a symphony, glistening and delicate strands of music were created which crossed the outdoor courtyard to the delight of the listeners.
Please click images to enlarge.
The event, which included interactive talks with professionals from the arts, culture and technology including Raspberry Pi, ARM, Metis Arts and our own Acting Director Rob Toulson, was hailed as a success by national leaders of the Culture Hack Programme. Rachel Coldicutt of Caper said:
"The development of the Culture Hack East programme is already influencing plans for other regional UK Culture Hacks. The organisational development work with the participating organisations increased both the quality of the data and the amount of hands-on involvement from the cultural organisations. We feel that this model will have the greatest long-term impact on the digital capacity of the Eastern region, and is a model we will continue to develop and roll-out throughout the UK."
To reinforce the benefits of collaboration between arts and technologies, the delegates were treated to a performance by artists Circumstance of their 'Of Sleeping Birds', part of the Visualise public arts programme. Using satellite positioning software to form a symphony, glistening and delicate strands of music were created which crossed the outdoor courtyard to the delight of the listeners.
Please click images to enlarge.
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