A talk based on my experiences at the Mediamatic Social RFID Hackers Camp at the PICNIC conference in Amsterdam in 2007, 2008 & 2009; as well as the Dev Camp ’10 hosted by Mediamatic itself. Given at Ignite London 4.

1. Building Interactive
Installations in Five Days
(and a bit)
February 8th, 2011—Ignite London 4, London, UK
Mark Wubben
A talk based on my experiences at the Mediamatic Social RFID Hackers Camp at the PICNIC
conference in Amsterdam in 2007, 2008 & 2009; as well as the Dev Camp ’10 hosted by
Mediamatic itself.
---
Hi! I’m Mark and this talk is about my experiences from building interactive installations in
just five days (and a bit). These come from hacker camps organized in Amsterdam by cultural
foundation Mediamatic.
Photo by Marieke Bijster, used with permission. http://www.mediamatic.net/page/105663/
en

2. At hacker camps we don’t hack bank accounts or take down websites. Instead, we try to build
crazy new stuff. These camps typically had 20 to 30 artists, designers, programmers,
scientists etc.
Photo by Marieke Bijster, used with permission. http://www.mediamatic.net/page/105567/
en

3. Important to know is that Mediamatic has it’s own social network software. They also provide
cute RFID tags — like what’s in your Oyster card — that can be linked to this network. That
way we can identify who interacts with the installation and update their online profile etc.
Photo by Marieke Bijster, used with permission. http://www.mediamatic.net/page/105983/
en

4. This is a mobile massage couch. You sit down and get a massage. Sit down with a friend or a
stranger, touch your RFID tag and it’ll connect you on the social network. Or ask somebody to
recharge your “massage credit”.
Made by Edwin Dertien, Fabienne Serriere & Ralph Meijer. Find out more at http://
www.mediamatic.net/page/52720/en.
Photo by Daria Perevezentsev, http://www.mediamatic.net/page/54511/en. Licensed under
Creative Commons, but it’s not clear which specific license.

5. Or how about a Google popularity contest? Challenge somebody, walk up to the ikWin, touch
your tag and take a seat in the elevator. The installation will google you both and the person
with the most results goes highest.
If you’re in the Netherlands you can even rent this installation yourself.
Made by Axel Roest, Mathias Forbach & Simon Claessen. Find out more at http://
www.mediamatic.net/page/52953/en.
Photo by Mathias Forbach, http://www.mediamatic.net/page/54630/en. Agreement for use
in this presentation with Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license granted via e-
mail.

6. This is the Vbird. It’s a flightless bird that you need to throw to other people. It’ll videotape
it’s flight and if you scan your RFID tag to the contained reader, the video will be uploaded to
your profile.
It was a massive failure (oh, and I worked on it).
Made by Adriaan Wormgoor, Eelco Wagenaar, Erik Borra, Mark Wubben & Martijn Pannevis.
Find out more at http://www.mediamatic.net/page/52865/en.
Photo by Daria Perevezentsev, http://www.mediamatic.net/page/55874/en. Licensed under
Creative Commons, but it’s not clear which specific license.

7. The hardware was in a very cramped space, so it was hard to maintain. And, you know, we
were throwing with it!
One lesson you can take from Vbird is that you need to simplify your project. Simplify,
simplify, simplify. I can’t repeat this enough, because it’s an incredibly useful mantra when
doing these kind of projects.
Photo by Daria Perevezentsev, http://www.mediamatic.net/page/55874/en. Licensed under
Creative Commons, but it’s not clear which specific license.

8. Simplify, simplify, simplify
1
One lesson you can take from Vbird is that you need to simplify your project. Simplify,
simplify, simplify. I can’t repeat this enough, because it’s an incredibly useful mantra when
doing these kind of projects.
The challenge of a Hacker Camp is to create something fun and meaningful in very little time,
with a rather hard deadline. Camp’s over, you go home, so it better be finished.
The only way to do this is to radically simplify your idea. Quite often when you first conceive
of something you tend to overcomplicate. If you’re a programmer you’ll love collecting data
and statistics, if you’re a designer you love building pretty interfaces. These things don’t
matter at all.
People like simple interactions. You’ll have to grab their attention, get them to interact, give
them a valuable moment and let them move on. It’s about the value of the experience.

9. Simplify even further!
The only way to do this is to radically simplify your idea. Quite often when you first conceive
of something you tend to overcomplicate. If you’re a programmer you’ll love collecting data
and statistics, if you’re a designer you love building pretty interfaces. These things don’t
matter at all.
People like simple interactions. You’ll have to grab their attention, get them to interact, give
them a valuable moment and let them move on. It’s about the value of the experience.

10. This is Badger. Based on your online profile it prints one of twelve badges. If you then bump
into somebody wearing the same (or a different) badge, you’ll have something to talk about!
Sounds simple, but it was still too complicated. It should have printed the badges at random,
and we could just have told the visitors that it was based on their profile. Getting a badge is
fun enough!
Made by Jim Wood, Audrey Samson & Mark Wubben. Find out more about Badger at http://
www.mediamatic.net/page/22590/en.
Photo by Marieke Bijster, used with permission, CC-BY-NC 2.0. http://www.mediamatic.net/
page/74925/en

11. Constraints are freeing
2
You’ll also find that there are many constraints on your project. These are good because they
prevent you from going too crazy. Where will the installation go? What’s the budget? How
many people do you have?
You’ll build a better installation with more constraints.

12. The Vbird was largely unconstrained. Too many people, too many technical possibilities. The
real fun was in throwing things. That’s what gave me the idea for the ikSpin: a simple frisbee
game. You need to score “touchdowns” at one of four bases, with RFID tags on the frisbee
and a reader inside each base.
Made by Eelco Wagenaar & Mark Wubben. Find out more at http://www.mediamatic.net/
page/105826/en.
Photo by Marieke Bijster, used with permission. http://www.mediamatic.net/page/112586/
en

13. But how do you build those bases? Start from scratch and construct them using wood? That’s
both expensive and time consuming. So instead my partner in crime went to the local
hardware store and stumbled across these buckets. Stack them up and they make a nice
base, with plenty of room for the hardware.
Right photo by Eelco Wagenaar, used with permission. http://www.flickr.com/photos/_wgnr/
4089406740/.

14. Have a Plan B
3
You’ve simplified and been constrained. Still, there’ll be risks in the project. Have a plan B.
For the Vbird, there was no plan B. For the ikSpin, we had redundancy in the base stations.
You’ll also need a Plan B for deciding between two different approaches. For example, the
Breaking The Frame team in ’09 was either going to rig up a set of webcams, or proper
cameras for a bullet-time effect.

15. You’ll also need a Plan B for deciding between two different approaches. For example, the
Breaking The Frame team in ’09 was either going to rig up a set of webcams, or proper
cameras for a bullet-time effect.
This is the picture of the moment where they have to make the decision to go to Plan B and
use webcams, because they can’t get the normal cameras working.
Unfortunately they spend nearly two days on getting the cameras to work, time they could
have spend on adding more webcams or making the interaction better.
Breaking The Frame was made by Carl Emil Carlsen, Dan Paluska & Mike Wege. Find out more
at http://www.mediamatic.net/page/105824/en.
Photo by Marieke Bijster, used with permission. http://www.mediamatic.net/page/105994/
en

16. The point of having a Plan
B is to never need it.
The point then of having a Plan B is to never need it in the first place. It makes you realistic
about Plan A. Yes, you do need to experiment, and attempt to go down the riskier path, but
you still have to finish the project in five days.

17. “Share Your Shit”
—Tor Nørretranders
4
When you’re at a hacker camp, you share. Sweat, tears, food, ideas, support. But of course
you also try to reuse existing software, some from previous camps, all of it open source.
You’ve got five days so you use what you can. Mediamatic has also evolved a set of tools we
could use.
For example, back in ’07 one of the teams constructed the Photo Booth. A massive structure
in which you could have your photo taken with friends and strangers.
[^1] Stowe Boyd, http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2008/06/share-your-shit.html
See also http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonz/2614647984/.

18. For example, back in ’07 one of the teams constructed the Photo Booth. A massive structure
in which you could have your photo taken with friends and strangers.
Mediamatic has taken this concept and turned it into the ikCam, open source software that
runs on Linux machines. We used it in the ikSpin for having people sign up to play the game.
From massive structure to “oh, we used that for signup”. Sharing is awesome.
Photo Booth was made by Timo Arnall, Einer Sneve Martinussen, Jørn Knutsen & Anne
Helmond. Find out more at http://www.mediamatic.net/page/22730/en.
Left photo by Anne Helmond, CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0. http://www.flickr.com/photos/silvertje/
1446632325/
Right photo by Minke Havelaar / Mediamatic. Used with permission. http://www.any.nu/
page/14420/en.

19. Of course if you’re at a hacker camp in a strange city, it’s great to have a support team that
does the shopping for you, makes sure there’s food in the fridge and can provide some
mentoring. Luckily Mediamatic took care of that for us, and I hope you can find some support
for your own projects as well.
Photo by Marieke Bijster, used with permission. http://www.mediamatic.net/page/105967/
en

20. Thanks!
novemberborn.net
@novemberborn
11born.net/ignite-lon
Licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Because really, I hope this does inspire you to do some hacking on your own projects. Keep it
simple, work within your constraints, and make something awesome.
Thank you.
P.S. You’ll find the slides at the link, including links to the projects and photo credits.
Illustration by Matt Jones, CC-BY-SA-NC, http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackbeltjones/
3365682994/.