Perth International Arts Festival… you know, that time of year when Perth is suddenly full of amazing displays of local and international talent. What’s that got to do with Spacecubed and Hacking? Organisers Tamryn Barker of Spacecubed and Liz Sideris of the Festival explain.
The Festival is about showcasing talent and new clever and creative expressions. The Internet and digital platforms have changed the way we deliver and engage with art, and as Digital Producer for the Festival, Liz wanted to create an event that facilitated new partnerships between artists, coders and developers to explore new artistic experiences with digital tools. Spacecubed has really brought the more online-savvy community together, and provides the perfect location and network to try and see if the meeting of the cultures and skills would spark new and unexpected creative outcomes.
Tamryn is an organiser of Govhack, so has experience getting sceptical bureaucrats together with even more sceptical hackers, so getting creatives and creative coders together is no problem. The event is organised along traditional hackathon lines: there are pitches for ideas, then teams form, then stuff gets built over the day, then it all gets judged. The judging criteria are:
- Use of technical skill and function
- Demonstration of creativity and artistic execution
- Overall concept and narrative
- Community engagement
- Commercial or public commission potential
The main difference is in the judging: it’s an exhibition rather than a pitch session, and there’s a 7-day gap between the day of the event and the judging, so that the artists teams have a chance to complete their works of art.
The mentors for the event are a mix of academics and practitioners in both Technology and Art. Among the mentors are Kate Raynes-Goldie, award-winning game and interactive designer/producer and founder of Games We Play, Geoffrey Drake-Brockman, renowned robotics artist and creative technologist, Steve Berrick, accomplished media artist and creative coder, Dr Mark Cypher, artist and Chair of Digital Media at Murdoch University, Dr Melissa Langdon, Engagement Manager at WA Museum and Spacecubed member Rachael West, creative communications facilitator and educator. This impressive list of qualifications and titles is a testament to Perth’s creative culture and its willingness to experiment with new things.
One of the interesting facets of the event for readers of //Startup News is that there is an awareness that traditional sources of funding for the arts is diminishing, and that the artist, like an entrepreneur, needs to develop skills to market their own work, attract funds and reach out to their audience. Lean Art anyone?
Registration for the event has been brisk, with nearly 100 people registering, and a roughly even spread of artists and developers. Registration is still open, and people without specific ideas are encouraged to register, as they can always join a team around someone else’s idea.
The goals of the event are twofold:
- to create and present some new digital art works as part of the Perth Festival
- to mix the artistic and startup communities a bit to see the fun to be had and what emerges.
