imclab / 3d-hackathon

Running a Hackathon

Abstract

We invite artists to come in and create derivative works, in order to better understand 3D scanning and printing technology, and the impact of creating a collaborative space in the museum.

Indroduction

Makerbot has made inexpensive hobbyist 3D printing accessible to the masses. 123D Catch has made it easy, quick and cheap to use 2D cameras to generate useful 3D models. Anyone can go to a museum and take pictures and print out their own 3D models with no special permission. Museums have a history of inviting artists to come work in the institution, providing space, materials, and support. Hackathons are an understood format for experimentation that often show the future of art and technology.

Materials and Methods

• Cameras + 123DCatch for model acquisition and generation
• Internets + Food + Caffienated Beverages + Power for creativity
• Makerbots for printing models
• Tons of awesome documenters - bloggers, photographers, videographers, etc...

Procedure

• Find departments and curators who are excited about the idea and why
• Find departments and curators who are opposed to the idea and avoid them
• Work out a schedule with MakerBot, education, and interested curators
• Invite artists to come to the museum
• Meet the artists a week before over drinks to convey curator goals
• Make sure to find out why the artists are excited
• Clear with legal
• Work with communications
• Make sure all the materials are accounted for

Data

Check out the twitter archive saved the day after the event.

Results

During the event

• Of the 24 artists invited, 17 participated
• Of the 17 artists that participated, a few left early but still made something (Marius Watz' code)
• Of the ~15 present the entire time, all made final presentations
• Most people did mashups, a few created technologies (DanTheMan,Marius)
• The objects scanned are still being uploaded to thingiverse
• Outside artists who were making derivative works from thingiverse
• About half of the artists had to use the wired network, and it was still slowing down their work

After the event

• other artists created derivative works, like we met heads on (licensed CC-NC-SA)
• artists are catching objects from other museums and in our museum

Discussion

Artists mentioned they felt comfortable to be themselves, free to do what they wanted which was key. Everyone signed the [legal document][artist form] even though they didn't all adhere to it. Mainly, the clause that the Met gets a copy of every scanned object before the event was over seemed impractical.

What worries did we have that didn't exist, what worries did we not account for?

Conclusion

The museum can be a catalyst of change - by having this event people have come back independently and scanned and uploaded more objects. We need more events where we invite people to create in the museum.

Resources

• we met heads on
• twitter archive
• Pre-Hackathon 123D Catch Testing
• Dropbox with Artwork
• Thingiverse Page

License

Everything in this repository is licensed CC-BY