Hive 76 and Hactory hackathon for interactive displays at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts exhibit

Tim Bieniosek, of the Hacktory, explaining his plans for LED matrices, at Saturday's art hackathon.

Arduino boards, Kinects and LED matrices littered the tabletops. UV laser pointers and photochromatic powders were being mixed like magic potions inside Hive76′s Spring Garden studio space this weekend.

The Hacktory and Hive76, two Philadelphia-based DIY groups, joined together for a hackathon on Saturday to discuss their upcoming installation at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for its After Dark: Turned On exhibit.

Turned On focuses on Henry Ossawa Tanner, a Pittsburgh-born black artist who studied at PAFA in the 1880s. Hive76 and the Hacktory will be creating the interactive exhibits that will be on display.

“We’re exploring themes of transcendence, light as a metaphor for mystery and making the invisible, visible,” said Stephanie Alarcon of the Hacktory.

The resulting projects will allow visitors to draw with light-sensitive ink and lasers and also play with an interactive projection. Their goal is to provide a fun, safe and educational piece that teaches visitors the importance of technology in art and society.

“We want to take a more modern look at the historical context of Tanner’s work,” said Alarcon.

Knight Foundation names 55 finalists to continue in 2012 Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia

A quick scan of the 55 recently announced Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia finalists for 2012 (listed below) reveals a rainbow of ideas aiming for the edge of arts and technology in Philadelphia.

As Technically Philly has reported previously, the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia is in year two of a three-year, $9 million initiative from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The initiative is designed “to draw the best and most innovative ideas out of local organizations and individuals seeking to transform the community through the arts.“

Grantees are expected to receive matching grants from other funders to impact the arts in Philadelphia. The contest was open to anyone with an answer to the question: “What’s your best idea for the arts in Philadelphia?”

A review panel says these 55 are the strongest from Philadelphia, due to be further slimmed down and finalized before being funded.

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Knight Arts Challenge returns for second year in Philadelphia, submissions until Oct. 31 [VIDEO]

The second year of the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia launched last week, kicking off the second round of this $9 million arts funding initiative. Submissions are accepted until Oct. 31.

APPLY HERE.

Organizers will be hosting a town hall next Monday, Oct. 17, which you can RSVP for here.

Read more

Hidden City Philadelphia launches daily news site

Hidden City Philadelphia, the festival celebrating “remarkable but obscured” heritage sites, has launched a daily news site dedicated to coverage of historical preservation in the region.

Hidden City Daily will feature content covering the developed world and architecture in Philadelphia. To launch, the site will have some two dozen contributors. It soft launched Friday.

VISIT THE SITE HERE.

Hidden City was a celebrated summer 2009 urban exploration art showcase, hosting fitting installations inside otherwise forgotten developed wonders, like Girard College’s Founders Hall or the Metropolitan Opera House. The second version of the festival is scheduled for 2013.

The initial festival was funded by the Knight Foundation and conceived by Thaddeus Squire, with whom Technically Philly spoke in June. Squire, aiming to stabilize and strengthen Hidden City, now a client of his CultureWorks program, said he hopes to build a community leading up to the next festival.

In a unique step forward for a nonprofit’s web presence, the editorial team playing the dominant site role. It’s a flip of the model. Think: instead of a news site like Technically Philly launching events, this is an event series launching a news site.

The site will work with the festival to bring in memberships and some advertising to fund the work.

New Pa. Turnpike traffic app, Rutgers web pioneer and other Links

• New app offers Pa. Turnpike drivers real-time traffic updates [NewsWorks] — TRIP Talk
• How 9/11 changed Philadelphia businesses [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Rutgers law librarian a Web pioneer [Inquirer] — John Joergensen’s New Jersey Court Web project (www.lawlibrary.rutgers.edu) has posted state appellate rulings since 1997
• Exit Interview: Britt Miller, Beloved Philly Artist [Geekadelphia] — The Geek site says goodbye to the devoted Philly artist and social media star, and steals our Exit Interview model, er, sorta.
• New Side Arts Partnerships and Discounts [SideArts] — “Side Arts is a creative management service for artists that offers online tools to manage the business side of creating art.  It is the largest online network of artists in Philadelphia and offers the most local, current, and comprehensive listing of artist opportunities in the region.”
• Iroko Pharmaceuticals to add jobs, space at Philadelphia Navy Yard [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Philly SteakOut: Website Helps People Decide Where to Grab a Cheesesteak [Geekadelphia] — Mikey il adds to our item on the Neiman Group web app
• Hive 76 Cleans up [Hive 76] — The Hacker space led a community clean up around its near-Spring Garden Street facility.
• Web portal idea loses momentum with CHCA [NewsWorks] The Chestnut HIll Civic Association says consultant Mel Taylor is losing interest. [Full Disclosure: Technically Philly discussed working with Taylor but that project, too, faded.]

muraLAB and Breadboard: apply for five-month technology and art residency program

From the Mural Arts Program and Breadboard:

muraLAB, a special initiative of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, and Breadboard are pleased to offer a joint artist residency and exhibition opportunity exploring the intersection of muralism and technology.

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Four artists will get five months of space in University City’s Next Fab Studio, from November to March.

Neil Kleinman: What is the Creative Economy asks Empowerment Group [VIDEO]

The creative economy is building ideas, rather than products first, Neil Kleinman tells the Empowerment Group in a recent interview.

Kleinman, a senior fellow of the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at the University of the Arts and former dean of that school’s College of Liberal Arts, discusses the center, its role, building business around ideas and how that can help Philadelphia.

Breadboard’s Art in the Air opens second season

If you’ve always wanted to have your art displayed in front of, literally, everyone in the city, here’s your second chance.

Arts technology epicentre Breadboard has announced that its Art in the Air program, which allows artists to compete to have their digital works displayed on the LED display atop the PECO building in downtown Philadelphia, has opened for the 2011 season.

We covered the program last summer.

The program’s upcoming deadlines for submissions are as follows:

• For September display: Aug 23th
• For October display: Sept 27th
• For November display: Oct 25th
• For December display: Nov 22nd

More information at Breadboard’s site.

Electronic Ink 911 call center interface featured at MoMA through Fall

Electronic Ink's 911 command center dashboard.

Philadelphia-based user experience and design firm Electronic Ink will be featured in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art starting next week.

The firm’s design exploration of 911 call center interfaces will be included in the museum’s Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects.

After a federal study identified that significant improvements could be made to dispatcher technology, the company created an interface that emphasizes the caller, provides easy-to-use display gestures for calling action, and utilizes a dark palette built for the dark environments common to dispatch rooms.

The exhibit starts on July 24 and runs through November 7.

Franklin Institute gets $250k grant for capital campaign

As the Philadelphia Business Journal reported on Monday, the US Airways Community Foundation provided $250,000 to the Franklin Institute for its museum expansion and $62 million capital campaign, according to a press release.

From the release:

“US Airways’ support is vital in allowing the Institute to further its mission – to inspire a passion for learning about science and technology,” said Don Callaghan, Institute Trustee and Chair of the Inspire Science! campaign. “Their assistance with this campaign allows us to continue to expand our efforts to provide one-of-a-kind, world-class science experiences that impact hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren and families every year.”