There was a call-out recently asking for "hackers whose medium is art and artists whose medium is tech" and I thought, "wait... that's me!"
This was the start to my first ever hackathon and art installation exhibit. All part of 'Dethrone'... [queue ominous music]
a mysterious planned gathering of creative techno weirdo types to do....what? The site says:
"Art Hack Day: DETHRONE invites you to upend established order. On February 22–24, artists and hackers will converge at Gray Area to create an exhibit from scratch that questions contemporary mechanisms of power, challenges their legitimacy, and envisions new potentials for a world unyoked from colonial and patriarchal systems. Wielding technology in unexpected ways, artists carry with them the potential to not only hack code but also culture. Together, with interspecies dependence and interplanetary cooperation in mind, the people can rewrite the protocols to dethrone malignant rule."
As someone who has always wanted to use technology for cultural change and protest, I thought this would be pretty neat. It was being held down the street from me at Gray Area - an abandoned movie theater from the 1950s cruising culture days (a-la American Graffiti) that has since been converted into a nifty arts and events space.
I had my first trip there not long ago via Dorkbot and found it to be incredibly accessible. That's the biggest checkpoint, cause so few spaces are in this town. So we have...
Accessible - check!
Art - check!
Technology - check!
Social & Political Engagement - check!
Free to sign-up - check!
Sounded like it was worth a shot, even if the description was vague and I didn't know what else to expect. Fortuntely, I was in for a very pleasant surprise ^_^
