With just over a week to go until Culture Hack Scotland 2012, many of the developers, designers and makers are thinking about what’s in store and what they might want to make. One of the beauties about events like this is that it’s truly uncertain as to what will emerge – all we can do as organisers is invite some super creative talent and make the environment as enjoyable as we can and then let what happens happen.
However given that some attendees have asked us for some guidance, here are some tips for ways to work out what you might do with your 24 hours that might be more than just mapping.
1. What would the data partners find useful? The various data providers have all given some information as to what is on their mind and for what they might find useful…these can be worth reviewing if you’re interested in a particular data set or a particular organisation. You can see this info in the data pages via here
2. What would *you* find useful? You understand what it’s like to be an audience member or visitor and what are *your* ideas of what could be done better from a user experience point of view? Some of the best hacks last year started as very personal itches that people had.
3. How can different data sets be combined creatively? This is a brilliant way of making projects that have never been thought of before – are there any potential relationships between data sets that might come alive if connected?
4. What would be a learning experience for you? Hackdays are super opportunities to try out a new technology or new idea that you’ve never got round to using in your normal work. Why not use the environment to experiment and play?
5. Add your skills to an idea you like. You needn’t come up with the idea yourself…either by just turning up on the opening evening and hearing the ideas from others you may well find that your skills and interest would help add some sparkle to someone else’s idea that you really connect with.
6. Collaborate with a new type of person. Similarly, you may decide that you’ve always wanted to work with a game designer or a musician or an arts marketing expert or a service designer or a writer or a Unity expert… by trying a new type of collaboration that you’ve never experienced before can be another great source of inspiration.
7. Think about the Big Picture. There have been some exciting examples recently of some culture-based start-ups such as Artfinder.com – can you use your entrepreneurial spirit to see where there might be a consumer market for a new type of offer and trial out the kernel of it?
8. Just make art. There is a lot of value in making valuable services for audiences and for organisations or even for sector-wide bodies like Creative Scotland. But there is also something beautiful about just making something beautiful.
We hope you find this little list useful…what other sources of inspiration might we have missed out?
