I love hacking. I love the challenge of it, the subversiveness of it, and the way in which it turns the world into a playground. Hacking is the art of dismantling and reassembling to alter the intended purpose, and I'm a big believer in the value of doing things you're not supposed to. It can be useful and noble, of course, but the real reason we mash things up and make new stuff is because it creates a happy chemical reaction in our brains.
However worthy our goals may be, without fun we have very little to keep us going. I'm interested in things because they're interesting, not because they self-describe as technology or art. I was one of the technologists selected for the Happenstance programme last year – a Digital R&D Fund pilot project that placed techies in arts organisations around the UK – and I have recently joined London creative technology agency Caper as an associate.
Back in January 2011, I attended the first ever Culture Hack Day, produced by Caper, bringing together the culture and technology sectors' shared passion for creativity. The event was inspired by the extraordinary enthusiasm demonstrated by developers at hack days, popular events that see teams of technologists challenged to build quick prototypes out of data within a very limited time frame.
