Antenna Documentary Hackathon
Forging new partnerships within design, coding and filmmaking communities
In 2014 I was invited to participate in the first ever Antenna Documentary Festival Hackathon in Sydney, organised in partnership with Tribeca Film Hacks, out of New York City.
What’s a Hacka-what?
A Hackathon is an event that brings together creative professionals of all kinds to collaborate, brainstorm new ideas, and prototype new products or services, all within a critical time constaint. Some hackathons may only last a day, some may last for weeks. But as the design thinking community knows, sometimes the best work can happen with the right minds working intensely together under time pressure. This critical constraint allows for a laser sharp focus on ‘doing’, on working through ideas quickly, without over-analyzing or striving for perfection. Hackathons create a safe space to explore new ideas, to learn from an interdisciplinary team, (and to learn how to work within an interdisciplinary team).
The Antenna Documentary weekend event united filmmakers, often for the first time, with designers and developers, who provide a critical skill set to reimagine stories in new and innovative ways. All filmmakers from the 5 teams expressed how grateful and inspired they were to see their story ideas pushed and pulled in new digital formats.
My role as UX mentor was to get the teams thinking about audience, giving them tools and ideas to develop a strategy for how their story and digital feature set can connect to the right community of people.
I loved seeing the ideas evolve and prototypes take shape. At the end of Day 2 each group pitched to a panel of industry experts who were incredibly generous with their critiques.
Congrats to Julia Scott-Stevenson & Ingrid Kopp for organising a truly inspiring event!
