Description:
The Digital Hang Outs were designed as low threshold get togethers where knowledge, creativity and ideas are shared. These gatherings made the Digital Art Lab an informal meeting place for curious people. The Hang Outs were usually held on wednesday evenings and would take about 1 1/2 hour. Each gathering would have a different theme.  It turned out that concrete and technical themes (i.e., build your own website, green screen, game testing) attracted the most participants.

We will zoom in on 2 of the Hang-Outs: Game Testing & Robotics. In the Game Testing Hang Outs (May 11 & 18) participants were actually beta testing our Break It Down game. Hip Hop teacher Timothy Kok (i.e., avatar of Break It Down) brought his own pupils, but other ‘non CKC’ people joined as well. Everybody had fun playing the game, and we received the feedback necessary to debug the game and adjust the user experience.

Unlike other Hang Outs, the Robotics Hang Out (June 22) was inspired by a loyal Hang Out visitor ‘Jasper Weyne’. This twelve year old boy regularly came to visit the Lab and our workshops. He told us, he and his friend had a Robot Club where they build robots with Lego Mindstorms (i.e., technical Lego with sensors). After some social networking, we found a group in Delft who did similar things and even organise a national competition for young Robot Builders (e.g., Double Robo Challenge – DRC). Both Jasper Weyne and his team, and the Delft DRC team presented their work in this special collaborative Hang Out. This Hang Out was our biggest hit.

Other Digital Hang Out Themes
– Build Your Own Website
– Picture This
– Broadcasting on YouTube
– Blogging
– Soundcloud
– Favicons
– HotGlue
– Make Your Own Online Comic
– Virals
– Green Screen

Tags digital hangout