My thanks to Danny and The LAB Miami for sending this recap.
By Danny Lafuente
This past weekend, The LAB Miami took over the YoungArts building on 2100 Biscayne Blvd for Miami’s 1st Art Hackathon. A group of dedicated programmers and web designers spent Saturday and Sunday conceptualizing and building apps that would make it easier to discover, interact with, or consume art locally…and that they did.
On Saturday, during hacking hours, other interested locals came through the space to chat with the coders and to be entertained by some lovely performances from YoungArts Students and Alumni. Performances included a dance by Hattie Mae Williams, a live set by Mel Bryant, and a wonderful jazz performance by a duo out of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
A larger crowd joined us on Sunday afternoon for the demos, where 4 completed projects presented:
- #MIArt – is an art way-finding app that allowed users to discover art venues, artists, and historic buildings around Miami. The app included an element of trivia to encourage users to be more active in and/or knowledgeable of the local art scene, which also provided coupons to partake in local art attractions if answering enough of the questions correctly. #MIArt was created by Claudio Romano, Brian Garbarz, and Augusto Peña.
- Art Dare You – is a social app that allows users to challenge their friends to an artistic game of dare. Users could dare each other to do things like a silly song & dance in public or draw a picture of the person sitting next to them at a restaurant before passing on a challenge to another person in their circle thereby encouraging a consistent flow of random acts of art. Art Dare You was created by Rob Hellestrae, Kat Martin, and Isabela Dos Santos.
- Artspaces – is an app that utilizes QR codes to provide more information to individuals touring galleries or street art. Users could learn more information about each artwork or artists by following the link associated with the QR code. After that, users could save certain artwork to their online “collection” from which the app could then recommend other venues or events nearby based on the users’ interests. Artspaces was created by David Shaw and Randy Jarrin.
- Artwalker – is also another art way-finding app that allowed users to see all art venues or events in Miami. Users can create a list of desired venues and the app would generate a walking tour, with instructions, of least resistance. The app’s plug & play nature also made it attractive to other “touring” activities like historic sites, restaurants, or nightlife. Artwalker was created by Sean Emmer.
#MIArt took home the grand prize of $1,500 with 1st runner up going to Art Dare You along with $500. Artspaces and Artwalker each took home $250 and were both awarded as 2nd runner up.
All teams will also receive 1 free month at The LAB Miami for all team members and a meeting with The LAB Miami team to discuss the future of each of the projects. The goal will be to connect the teams to other individuals, organizations, or resources that will facilitate continued development in the hopes of having them all launched to the public.
The Art Hackathon is a Knight Arts Challenge winning project and was made possible thanks to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The LAB Miami would also like to thank the Young Arts Foundation for graciously allowing us to use their venue, Dr. Richard Bookman of the University of Miami for joining us on the judging panel, and the wonderfully talented Young Arts Alumni that took time out of their Saturday to delight us with their individual talents.