The MIT Sloan Entertainment and Media Club is hosting Hacking Arts, a two-day festival and hackathon exploring the intersection of arts, entertainment, technology, and entrepreneurship, on September 28 and 29 at the MIT Media Lab on the Cambridge campus.
"We're not just talking about the future of the arts - we are creating it"
The two-day inaugural event will feature panel discussions and talks by entrepreneurs in the creative industries, tech-enabled live performances and art pieces, demos by early-stage startups, and a 21-hour hackathon.
Created by students at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Hacking Arts is designed to inspire new advances in the creative industries by fostering collaboration between entrepreneurs, musicians, artists, and engineers. The event is supported by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology, Berklee School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
"Interactions between arts and technology are producing more moving, interactive, and immersive experiences than ever before," said Hacking Arts Co-Chair Kathleen Stetson, an opera singer-turned-entrepreneur and a second-year MIT Sloan MBA candidate. "Hacking Arts is an opportunity to merge MIT's expertise in technology and entrepreneurship with Boston's strong artistic community and spark new ideas in arts and entertainment."
In sessions devoted to fashion, music, performing arts, film and digital media, and visual arts and design, attendees will learn from industry leaders and participate in discussions about the state-of-the-art technology enabling the business of the creative industries.
After hearing from enterprises like The Echo Nest, Sonos, YouTube Music, Bow & Drape, SonicBids, Artnet, Paddle8, Fandor, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, participants can take action and put their ideas into motion during the hackathon.
"We're not just talking about the future of the arts - we are creating it," adds Stetson's Co-Chair Catherine Halaby, a second year MBA student at MIT Sloan.
Hackathon teams will have access to application programming interfaces (APIs) from The Echo Nest, Sonos, Spotify, Gilt Groupe, ShopSense, and many more. Teams may also participate in the Little Sun Challenge. Winning teams will receive prizes, including mentorship from MassChallenge and Little Sun.
To learn more about Hacking Arts, please visit: www.hackingarts.com
To register, please visit: www.hackingarts2013.eventbrite.com
To view a full list of sponsors, please visit: www.hackingarts.com/#!sponsorspartners/cani