A creative jam, a poetry slam: welcome to the next M+ Hackathon.

We were humbled by the overwhelming number of signups for our first M+ Hackathon last year and awed by the outputs from each team. Inspired by the conceptual discussions around the creative possibilities of utilising data as raw material, we have decided to hold a second event — this time themed around artistic projects.

The second M+ Hackathon will be a two-day event, hosted at Eaton House, during the weekend of 16–17 March. Learn more and sign up here.

Think of this hackathon as a creative jam, meant to help bring diverse individuals and creative ideas together to fruition. Taking inspiration from jazz jam sessions, it’s meant to be a space where you can explore, experiment, and improvise.

But really, what should I expect?

We’d like to invite you to create a project during the hackathon using the M+ Collections metadata from our open data set as a jumping off point. We encourage you to think of it as raw material that might help you produce:

• Creative projects inspired by the M+ Collections
• Design projects visualising this partial set of the M+ Collections
• Data visualisations that explore the M+ Collections and/or other collections of art and visual culture

What if you could host an emoji poetry slam, based on museum data processed through emoji translation tools? Create an exquisite corpse drawing based on the M+ Collections? Propose a series of posters for future M+ galleries? Or create a Concentration-inspired game matching creators to objects?

Build, design, draw, or act out (!) a project of your choosing. The parameters of this hackathon are intentionally loose, and we look forward to seeing what visually exciting, thought-stimulating outcomes you create.

We’ve significantly expanded the M+ Collections open data set this year. This March, we are releasing an additional ~2,000 items, taking our open data set to a current total of just about 4,000 records. And for the first time, we are including over 1,200 archival records! Our soon-to-be launched M+ Collections Beta — a new website featuring a growing selection of objects from the collections will also be released then.

One caveat: our images won’t be released into the public domain as the majority of copyright remains with our artists. However, we see this as an opportunity rather than a challenge.

Join as an individual or as a team of up to four by signing up here. No coding required!

P.s. We’ll have some food, drinks and prizes prepared.

Some food🍜🍏🍱 for thought

We took an internal poll within the digital team for project ideas, and came up with the following:

• A travel guide, ‘To Travel Through the M+ Collections’, by Amy Leung
• A series of print zines, suggested by Chris Sullivan
• A set of custom M+ emojis, ‘Mmoji’, invented to help us translate works in the Collections by Diane Wang
• A diorama, ‘If the M+ Collections was a farm’ by Ruby Chan

Additionally, we’ve been eyeing some amazing projects around the globe:

• Data-inspired Cinema Posters by RMIT for ACMI
• A take on Leonard Cohen during Adobe Creative Jams
• Google Arts and Culture Experiments

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About M+ Hackathons

M+ held its inaugural hackathon in 2018 to celebrate the release of the first M+ open data set. To catch up on our previous hackathon, read more here.

This M+ Hackathon is generously supported by Eaton House

Eaton House is a dynamic take on the modern working club, providing the space, tools, and community to support social entrepreneurs, activists, and artists working to make the world a better place. As a core pillar under Eaton Workshop, a global purpose-driven company founded by Katherine Lo, Eaton House members hail from a variety of fields and are selected by a criteria based on a shared ethos and common cause: examining today’s world and conceiving of how we can make it better. Learn more about Eaton House here.