The Hacktory receives $10,000 grant for long-term planning

Photo courtesy of The Hacktory.

The Hacktory has received a $10,000 grant from the Philadelphia branch of national financial and advisory service Nonprofit Finance Fund.

The money will be used to hire a consultant to help define a long-term sustainability plan to further the Fairmount-based group’s mission of promoting the use of technology in arts, Hacktory organizer Vanja Buvac told Technically Philly.

Since the grant was signed three weeks ago, Philly’s techno-hackers have been communicating with core community members and performing outreach for input on how the organization should grow, he says.

“What we’re hearing overwhelmingly is that the Hacktory empowers artists to embrace technology. Also, it empowers technologists to cross that boundary into art,” Buvac says.

“That’s what the people involved in the Hacktory are really passionate about.”

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RJ Metrics makes a rap video and admits it

Jake Stein at left and Robert Moore at right of business dashboard firm RJ Metrics performing in their "Business Intelligence" rap video.

And now for something totally different.

You may be tired of the ironic rap video — we know we are — but sometimes an old idea can pass. Does this?

Jake Stein and Robert Moore, the two Ivy League-educated entrepreneurs behind the business intelligence dashboard RJ Metrics that opened up shop earlier this month, have broken from their cipher and put business on wax.

Stein, who lives in Center City, sings the hook and plays straight man to Moore in their single “Straight Outta Camden,” noting their recent move to the Rutgers University-Camden tech incubator.

Peep the video and score an exclusive download after the jump.

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Duane, how do you pronounce Swierczynski?

Earlier this week, we covered Northeast Philadelphia’s favorite graphic novelist Duane Swierczynski.

We talked about social media – his blogging and tweeting – and other junk.

But dude’s dry humor is too good to not enjoy twice. After a ride through YouTube, watch our favorite posted interview experience of Duane’s from years passed.

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P’unk Ave Active Intersection sound installation now streaming live

Ashley John Pigford’s Active Intersection sound installation, running this month at P’unk Avenue‘s office in the Passyunk Square neighborhood of South Philadelphia is now streaming live.

We reported on the University of Delaware professor’s installation with near-excruciating detail earlier this month in our Shop Talk series last week.

Pigford’s installation is a trippy experiment that documents, translates and transmits activity in the street outside P’unk Avenue’s office near 9th and Federal streets as sound.

A camera records sound and video of happenings in the intersection. A computer extracts information from the recorded data and outputs it into a droning, fluctuating melody. Then, the re-processed sound then gets synced to a projection of the video recording.

“It’s constantly changing, constantly flowing, which I think is a very positive human experience.” — Ashley John Pigford on his sound installation.

Be sure to check out the live stream—which is quite hypnotizing—and find out how it all works in our coverage.

Shop Talk: P’unk Avenue Active Intersection’s Ashley John Pigford

If you visit P’unk Avenue this month, you may enter an audio/visual time warp. But if you survive, you’ll be in for something special.

Ashley John Pigford is currently showing his Active Intersection sound installation at the space, an electro-organic experience that translates a busy intersection into an audio/visual sense frenzy.

A camera records sound and video happening on the street. A computer extracts information from the recorded data and outputs it into a droning, fluctuating melody. All of the re-processed sound than gets synced to a projection of the video recording.

“Consider it taking real life as data, translating it, and putting it back out to real life,” Pigford said.

It’s trippy. We know.

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Bala Cynwyd’s First Flavor on Today Show

Bala Cynwyd marketing company First Flavor President Jay Minkoff was on the Today Show yesterday during this week last year promoting its “Peel ‘n Taste” technology, which they say is, “a way to market the most important sensory aspect of your product.”

It was the beginning of what has become a long line of recent news for the five-year-old Montgomery County company, who, we’re happy to share, formulated its business plan at Philadelphia’s own University of Pennsylvania and has since signed on a host of new clients.

Read how and see video of Minkoff’s Today Show performance after the jump.

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SEO copywriter: Musicians should turn to a variety of social networks for promotion

Sansone presents his case study at Ly Michael's in Chinatown.

For a plurality of users, MySpace is all but dead. But for musicians, the social networking site remains crucial for maintaining connections with fans and venue owners, according to a lecture by local SEO copywriter Ron Sansone.

Before a modest crowd of a dozen-and-a-half on hand to hear Sansone’s talk on social media and music, organized by the Philadelphia Standards Organization, he presented a case study observing new media marketing practices implemented for his own local band.

According to the speech by Sansone, whose day job is with the Philadelphia branch of global digital branding company Razorfish, MySpace can be a powerful central hub for promotion when flanked with a multitude of additional social networking sites.
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Get your pinball tilt on with Make:Philly this Sunday

Over the past month, the crew at Make:Philly has been hacking together three pinball machine carcasses into a single playable arcade monstrosity. This weekend, it hopes to finish the project.

Unlike normal Make:Philly meetings, the entire duration of Sunday’s meet-up is devoted to making that pinball machine sing. The crew spent Valentine’s Day building parts (Ed. note: We apologize on behalf of M:P to significant others everywhere), so bring your polish and your quarters.

All skill levels are welcome at this event, whether you’re a wizard or you’ve got Xbox thumbs. We have our fingers crossed for a hacked skee-ball alley, next. We’ll skip the Jersey shore this summer if it happens. Staycation with Make:Philly and the Hacktory!

Make:Philly @ The Hacktory
1524 Brandywine St., Philadelphia
Sunday, Feb. 22, 2 p.m.
Please note that location and time has changed from regularly scheduled meetings.

Photo Credit: Aaron Weber

Art mash-ups with The Hacktory and NEXUS/foundation gallery

On Thursday, NEXUS/foundation for today’s art will partner with The Hacktory to unveil “Unintended Uses,” an exhibition showcasing more than a dozen artists’ art/tech mash-ups. It wasn’t easy. The artists set to hacking, sawing, wrecking, and Frankensteining video games, electronics, kinetics, musical instruments, motion sensors, paintings, computers, circuitry and public spaces.

Our witty, nearly non-sensical preview of the show, along with the where and when‘s, after the jump.

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