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.”

The organization held an open planning session Wednesday evening at Nonprofit Technology Resources on the 1500-block of Brandywine Street to discuss its future. Members envisioned expanding the organization as an artist and engineer incubator and as a more regularly scheduled education center, Hacktory planning coordinator and volunteer Georgia Guthrie says.

“They want to see more of what the Hacktory is doing already,” she says. “People mentioned that sometimes there’s no regular classes or there’s a lack of content on our Web site. It makes the Hacktory look like we’re not there, and people expect us to be.”

Guthrie, who has worked for nonprofit organizations Pennsylvania Humanities Council and Philadelphia Education Fund, is helping coordinate the grant planning.

When NFF first expressed interest in providing a grant, Hacktory organizers contacted like-minded groups like NEXUS/foundation for today’s art, Pig Iron Theatre Company and Fleisher Ollman Gallery for advice.

The Hacktory partnered with NEXUS to showcase more than a dozen art/tech mash-ups in Unintended Uses, a month-long exhibit that we covered in February.

After Hacktory organizers attend planning sessions on June 19 and June 20, they will solicit community members with a survey of their “hopes and dreams” of the organization’s future.

“Our pie in the sky is to have an actual location where you can go and either bring your project and ask someone for help, take a class and work on your project, or see something cool in terms of an art exhibit,” Guthrie says.

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.

The track features lyrics about VCs and balance sheets on a beat from Adamack of New Jersey-based Open Minds Entertainment. Listen below, or download the track here.

Look out for all the killer lines, including: “You got a social app? Well, it’s a disgrace, look. ‘Cause even Facebook can’t even make money on Facebook.”

See their complete lyrics — with links, of course — on their company blog, The Metric System.

Digg it here, and get someone from our community some love — if they really want it.

Of the future, Stein, who seemed at least a little hesitant on whether this was a good idea, says, “Yes, unfortunately there may be something in the works, and, depending on the response from this, the group could come back for a reunion tour.”

RJ Metrics plans to help small and medium-sized businesses that collect data about their customers better use that information to chart user behavior.

So, is it funny or not? Is it two young, successful entrepreneurs having fun or an attack on professionalism? It’s bold, to be sure, think the risk will work out?

More importantly, what’s your favorite line?

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.

In 2006, Duane was in Houston for some reason. (We didn’t realize people lived in Houston who didn’t work on or own oil rigs).

Interviewer: “Swierzer.. Swiz… How do you pronounce that?”

Duane: “Smith.”

So, Duane, here is your much belated and deserved laugh.

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.

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.

An Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware, Pigford teaches about the creative process and advises students in areas of new media. He said he is inspired by translating common experiences into things more significant. Exposing the beauty of the every day, he says. “Turning the practical into the poetic.”

When Pigford was asked by P’unk Ave to use their front window along Passayunk Avenue as his canvas, he became interested in the activity that happens in the intersection in front of the Web development studio. He wondered how he could get passersby to experience the situation in a different way through his own translation.

Walk past P’unk Avenue’s home near 9th and Federal streets in the Passyunk Square neighborhood of South Philadelphia and find out how Pigford did just that.

A shot captured by the installation's web cam shows two police cars entering the intersection.

He said he’s always been interested in sound. It’s a medium and a phenomenon that doesn’t sacrifice itself for our eyes—it penetrates more deeply, he said. He decided to try to translate the sound constantly cycling in the intersection.

The installation is powered by Max/MSP, a graphical development environment for music and multimedia applications that allows for the manipulation of digital audio signals in real-time.

“It deals a lot with sensors and outputs [sound data] to motors and interactive installations, stuff like that.”

The software takes data fluctuations that exist in his video—the contrast, the movement, the color palate—and applies them to a base melody—the words “Passayunk Avenue” taken letter by letter, with each letter transposed to a musical note based on its position in the alphabet.

So, “P” transcribes to a “G” note. And as the G-note drones, activity being recorded by the video camera facing the intersection is converted into data that effects the modulation of that tone.

The more people and cars passing by the intersection, the higher the envelope fluctuation. If a pigeon walks slowly across the street, it sees less fluctuation.

Pigford's Max/MSP application shows frequency modulations caused by the police cars appearing on video.

“You’re going to hear the modulation of two frequencies, and your ear is going to make up what is happening to those waves, literally,” Pigford said.

Meanwhile, live audio samples being recorded by the camera play over top of the fluctuating melody.

The audio is discreet, something in the realm of Brian Eno, he said. Listening to it, it bears a resemblance to an orchestral soundtrack. Moody, frightening, and ethereal—when the tone fluctuates, it can cause chills.

And that’s only half of it. As the audio twists your brain, video of the intersection is projected on a thin sheet in front of the window.

“When you look at the storefront you will see an image of the intersection. If you walk up to it, you will see yourself actually projected into the window,” Pigford said.

He had trouble figuring out how to make the installation available to people. He knew he’d have to convince his potential audience to take the time to allow themselves to experience what he was trying to convey.

“This piece is not like a traditional painting where you say, ‘OK, I get it,’ and walk away. It’s not a two-second MTV news flash,” he said.

For now, he’s broadcasting the audio with a short-range FM transmitter. He hopes to have streaming audio and video of the installation online this week. The installation should run for another month.

“There’s these variances that come along that you don’t expect. Sometimes the frequency modulation awakens you, and then you’ll hear these layers of sonic experience that tell you what’s going on. It might make you turn and look at the intersection,” he said.

“It’s constantly changing, constantly flowing, which I think is a very positive human experience.”

Every Wednesday, Shop Talk shows you what goes into a tech product, organization or business in the Philadelphia region. See others here.

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.

Last year First Flavor’s national attention began for an advertising campaign with its peel and taste for Welch’s Grape Juice, first in People’s magazine.

Other clients readying for their own in-print tasting campaigns include Captain Morgan’s rum and Campbell’s Soup.

But in March of 2007, First Flavor was a fairly unknown suburban marketing agency. So Minkoff, a 1983 Wharton graduate, took his business model and plans to his alma mater’s Small Business Development Center, as he explained to me last March.

“We needed to evaluate the market size, identify potential strategic partners,” Minkoff told me. “We really got a first-class management type of report done. A report like this would have cost us $20,000. We got it for no cost really.”

I’d say he’s done just fine with the help.

Hat tip to Phillyprenuers. Photo courtesy of First Flavor. It depicts production of Welch’s ad, a sample of juice behind a metal foil that ran inside magazines.

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.

Sansone illustrated the fractured, niche nature of social networks created by their sheer abundance but offered advice for musicians hoping to score gigs and impress fans on the Web. Promote your band on as many networks as you can, he said, and you will reap the benefits of each network’s “highly targeted, captive audience.”

Formed in 2007, Sansone’s alt-rock band Super Consumers began as many do: with zero fans and an aspiration to play bigger and better shows. By connecting with their audience, club owners, promoters, and other musicians online, the band has lead a successful promotional campaign.

Two years and a lot of log-in passwords later, Super Consumers has gained an online fan base of more than 2,000. They book one to two shows each month, including gigs at the Trocadero Balcony and Main Stage. The band has been featured in Philadelphia Weekly, and they have an upcoming live performance on Radio 104.5 FM.

Sansone eschewed the need for owning a branded domain name such as SuperConsumers.com which they don’t. Instead, he insisted that musicians create a well-woven network around a central hub, in this band’s case, MySpace. Why MySpace? Account figures have been dropping since Facebook became king, but as Sansone argues, the antiquated networking site still rules club owners and promoters simply because it’s too much work to leave.

Sansone recommended taking advantage of networking sites’ best features. Facebook, TheSixtyOne, and ReverbNation were important for fan interaction. PureVolume, last.fm, Virb, Sonicbids, and CD Baby helped get the band’s music in its audience’s hands. Last, SonicBids and EIY assisted MySpace in making crucial contacts at venues.

Considering that like the music industry, many industries are being turned on their head by online models, Sansone’s lecture offered an important universal takeaway: It’s a great time to be D.I.Y.

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

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

• Michiel van der Zanden hand paints YouTube clips, three dimensional computer models, and video games to wreck your reality.
• Don Miller hacks NES cartridges to uniquely market underground music shows, and perhaps more importantly, pay homage to the demoscene programmers of decades past.
• Reade Vaisman will display his Frankensteined curcuit-bent noise box, complete with messy wiring and all the glitches you’ve come to miss since vacuum tubes burned out.
• Sarah Muehlbauer makes a fashion statement. Actually, she belts it out like a Greek god. Muehlbauer’s wearable, modernized pan pipe is fashionable, yet functional. Suburban Station commuters will be instantly smittened into donating dollar bills.
• Kathy Marmor wants you to play with your environment, and with any luck, laugh about it too. But it’s deeper than that, dude. It’s about constructions of identity.
• Fernando Orellana‘s radio mechanism replicates humankind’s search for the omnipotent by recording signals transmitted by the turn of this General Electric’s dial until it finds a match. This isn’t the first time Radio searched for a God; it’s first lesson in heaven-hunting was when television left the industry for dead.
• Though it appears to be the long tail, Zachary Stadel‘s sculpture is about tipping points. In his series, he reorganizes the physical construction of a painting from its stretcher bars to its paint to examine presentation in various media.
• Wil Lindsay‘s ancient monolithic circuit box (read: Commodore) analyzes fingertips like a lie detector and maps psychological make-up. At least, it did until it was abandoned in a building in upstate New York. If Psychological analysis involves only two buttons, count us in.
• Chris Vecchio is a shoe gazer. Or he was, when he stumbled upon a tiny circuit board sitting in a gutter. He hacked it back together, complete with a speaker. It’s tiny, tinny voice chilled his bones: “You shall perish,” it said. Lucky for Chris, the battery died.

Crane Arts Building
1400 N. American Street

Exhibition runs Thurs., Feb. 12 – Fri. March 6
Wednesday through Sunday 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

[NEXUS/foundation for today's art in Philadelphia via The Hacktory]