Hackers blog
All about Mediamatic Hackerscamp at PICNIC 08
Mediamatic is going to kick start this year’s Picnic with a first live event, a Hackers Camp, a team of professional geeks and interaction designers with technical and creative skills who will use RFID and physical computing to realize the most creative and ambitious of ideas. Mediamatic has assembled a nerd’s paradise – a bunch of exciting equipment for participants to play with while questioning social interaction and identity.
You can read a day by day report below.
Daria
DeborahToday is the last day of Picnic. Willem Velthoven, director of Mediamatic Lab challenged Monique van Dusseldorp, one of the organizers of Picnic, for a run with the exciting ikRun installation. Unfortunately for Willem, Monique won!
Later this day Willem presented the freshly made Mediamatic Hackers Camp masterpieces at the conference.
To get a good idea how the atmosphere was at the Hackers Camp and PICNIC check out this video clip below, made by Matt Cottam and Jasper Speicher, creators of the very funny Breathalyzer.
Breathalyzer @ PICNIC, Amsterdam from Tellart on Vimeo
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ikWiN project is a great success-
IkWin by Mathias Forbach, Axel Roest en Simon Claessen.
One of the biggest hit of today was without a doubt the ikWin! It is so funny and exciting to watch and take part in this project. Especially if you could get your hands on a Bill Gates of Paris Hilton tag, you'll be the winner, without a doubt!
The Friend Drink Station was sold out after many people discovered this new way of networking...
V-Bird collapsed yesterday after suffering too many bugs and technical hick-ups, fortunately it did at least fly gloriously for one day.
A lot of attention for the ...
Today is the second day of Picnic and all the projects are fine-tuned and as bug free as possible. The atmosphere is a bit more festive and less official. Loud (terrible cheesy) music is heard in the Gashouder and PICNIC visitors keep on bringing new friends to the Friend-Drink-Station. We all wonder why that is!
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Breedrs, friendly personal creatures
The first day of Picnic is stressful, a bit chaotic and maybe a tat frustrating, but we are inside Gashouder building and things are starting to work out. The space is great. Floors are covered with real grass, birds are soothingly chirping, there is even a smoke machine to complete a perfect picnic atmosphere and free coffee. The only design drawback are few little dead sheep scattered around the site. They are black and stuffed. They look a bit disturbing, especially for vegetarians...
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Sheep is a symbol of this year's Picnic festival
Morning
Mediamatic (or Mediamanic how some here call it) is crowding in a small tent in the Gashouder building. All projects are as good as ready. Everything is working, but there are still small annoying details in the shape of bugs to fix here and there before interaction with guests can begin.
For example, The Mobile Massage Couch is working and has already given numerous unforgettable massages, but it still has to be adjusted to activate massage option only when two people are sitting on it, and not just one person, otherwise it's just not fair and it won't help y...
Time is running out. There’s some stress in the air and the language is getting slightly heavier. All the projects should be build and running by tomorrow.
Participants went home around 2 in the morning yesterday, and started the day @ 9:30. For the minute it seemed like the rain will ruin the plans for the Department of Information Security and Privacy (Media Tower) and The Breedrs projects but there was enough plastic to cover the construction site and the work continues.
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V-Bird new colors
Morning
This morning group members are working individually on their tasks.
V-Bird is going to be very flashy and colorful and it will have an accelerometer. Massage Couch has embedded speakers and it looks like it will be completed on time. The Breedrs are celebrating, today they will finally get their pond.
Simon is working on a part for the lift for IkWIN! project and everyone is eager to finish on time.
Day 2 ended @ 2 in the morning and Day 3@ 3 in the morning, the longest night so far. Will Day 4 beat the record?
All projects are progressing and looks like our teams will meet their deadlines.
Last night after some spicy Indian take-out Marc Boon got his RFID-over-I2C-serial-interface, which is a component used by three different projects: V-Bird, Media Tower and RFID Racer. Today locations will be finalized for each project.
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V-Bird team are looking for possible casing for their flying camera
Morning
Today another volunteer arrived. Welcome Silvia Janoskova.
Also a camera crew from Tvents came by to make a news item on Hacker’s Camp.
The Breedrs, small personal creatures, are very close to getting their pond. The team still needs sand and a beamer. Luis is working on genetics and Neil on behavior of creatures and the project is coming together well.
Basic construction for Massage Couch is completed and now comes the technical part: LED signalization systems, speakers, and creating interfac...
Although Day 2 ended @2 in the morning, Day 3 started with a coffee as early as 9:30.
All concepts are ready. Basic framework and code are in place. Most of the equipment and material is purchased and being worked on. For the most part construction of projects began yesterday and we already have a glimpse of what it would look like.
Mark Wubben saved the day by fixing a bug in Java library just before midnight last night: “It was just some annoying thing and it took a long time to figure it out”. Thank you, Mark.
Morning
Mobile Massage Couch appears to hum in impressive subsonics and Mario Carts will use game controllers and now need a favor of STEIM…
The Google Battle = IKWIN! meter will only use analogue displays like the arm of a clock, and the V-Bird project team are chopping PAT bottles for the casing of the WiFi cam.
Tada! It was decided that ikRun will ha...
Sunny Day 2 started with a meeting exploring potential project ideas. Out of 15 original ideas a bunch seem to be the most promising. The ones that generate the most enthusiasm from team members have more chances for success, as well as the ideas which are simple and clear. “Anything that requires you to read a manual before playing the game won’t work” explains Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, project coordinator.
- Creatures Evolution a.k.a The Breeders, a concept of personal virtual creatures growing and developing according to your profile status.
- T(r)act(or)ical Media Performance=Department of Information Security and Privacy - exposing possible abuse of personal information.
- Mobile Massage Couch, yes, there...
Morning
The projects are aimed to connect people, to “break the ice” between strangers.
The ones that made it to The List are
Mediamatic is going to kick start this year’s Picnic with a first live event, a Hackers Camp, a team of professional geeks and interaction designers with technical and creative skills who will use RFID and physical computing to realize the most creative and ambitious of ideas. Mediamatic has assembled a nerd’s paradise – a bunch of exciting equipment for participants to play with while questioning social interaction and identity.
Morning
A brightly lit room of Oosterlijk Meterhuis is filled with shiny laptops, cords and strong smell of coffee. After a brief introduction, Klaas lists available equipment and seems like brainstorming is about to begin. The anticipation is high but there are still a few obstacles on the way - the participants have to familiarize themselves with the working environment, RFID tags, RFID readers, social interaction concept and the coffee machine. So in short the brainstorming will take place after lunch starts up the brains.
Afternoon
Semi-sunny afternoon weather is positively stimulating grey cells and the re...
Happy Hackers on PICNIC 08
The experience of the brand new RFID installations
Hackers Camp Day 7.
In the 5 days preceding PICNIC, an annual crossmedia conference in Amsterdam, Mediamatic organized the Social RFID Hackerscamp. A group of excellent coders, designers and physical computeers used recent technologies and interaction design to realize a bunch of engaging interactive installations, wearables and spaces.
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Happy Hackers on the attic at Mediamatic-
Photo taken by Anne Helmond, Flickr
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