Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
G.Hack farewell dinner!
15/10/2016Even though we had officially closed the project with our ‘5 Years of G.Hack’ celebration back in April, we still had to sift through the boxes of all the materials we have used over the years and decide what gets recycled in the workshop and what goes straight into the bin!
So, finally in October, after FLO performance at ALL2016, which myself and Magda did with our colleagues from University of the Arts (Maria and Ximena) remotely from QMUL music studios, we finally found some time to go through everything. Whilst opening the boxes and rummaging through wires, Arduino boards, cables, electronic components, rolls or tape and other knick-knacks we used on daily basis for our various hacks, the memories of good times kept flooding back and we started reminiscing and laughing about various things we did over the years like …
'Ugly' teapot for testing SMLT, that was superseded by a beautiful glass one 🙂
Arduino kits, fliers for Light Touch and SMLT
Beautiful (technology enhanced) flowers for Threads & Yarns installation ...
As Katja was also packing her office and leaving for Singapore to start an amazing post-doctoral research job (well done Katja!!!), we thought it would be nice to have one last dinner (with whoever is in town) and say one last farewell!
With Pollie relocating to University of Sussex, Kavin to University of Surrey, Sonia to Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne, Alice to Nottingham, Berit to Berlin, Magda to Warsaw etc. etc. (you get the picture!), it was a miracle we managed to get anyone to join myself and Katja but Mi was still in town (waiting for her VIVA – which she has passed with flying colours) and Ioana (who wanted to become a member of G.Hack but then got busy with work) was around too and so the 4 of us had some amazing Persian and Afgan food at our usual spot – Ariana restaurant near Mile End! Good times!!! And we will definitely have to have a ‘repeat’ when Katja comes back to town!
The last supper at Ariana (Katja, Ioana, Nela & Mi)
After Dinner we went back to Katja’s office to pick up some stuff and give Ioana her ‘honorary’ G.Hack certificate and mug for all the years she has supported the project!
and the honorary G.Hack membership goes to (drum roll please!) Ioana!!!!!!
Bon voyage Katja!
Farewell G.Hack!
Take care G.Hackers, wherever in the world you may be!
I am missing you already!!!
Nela Brown (G.Hack Chair 2011-2016)
ps whilst rummaging through G.Hack archive, I found more stuff we forgot to ‘share’ on our blog. As they say, better ever than never!
Presenting G.Hack at Music Tech Fest (IRCAM, Paris, 2014)
G.Hack presents: Hack Workshop & Women Hackers panel at Sonar 2014!
02/06/2014
After noticing the low number of female hackers at Music Hack Days, G.Hack troops Patrizia, Magda, Katerina and Nela decided to put together some fun activities for Sónar+D (Barcelona’s 21st International Festival of Advanced Music and New Media Art) festival including Learn to Hack Web Audio API with G.Hack workshop (to teach female attendees of some hacking skills and encourage them to participate in future Music Hack Days!) and Women Hackers panel with inspirational women founders, leaders, researchers and advocates of cyberfeminism, hacktivism, open culture and free tech education (more info and photos below!).
Workshop: Learn to Hack Web Audio API with G.Hack
In the workshop, participants will learn about the culture of software and hardware hacking through short demos and examples, before moving on to using Web Audio API straight through their web browser! The Web Audio API is a high-level JavaScript API for processing and synthesizing audio in web applications. It includes capabilities found in modern game audio engines and some mixing, processing and filtering tasks found in modern desktop audio production applications. Participants will use this API to build simple synths and combine them with other musical feature extraction APIs to make some cool hacks! (The workshop is aimed at women beginners with no previous programming experience, though all levels are welcome).
Talk: Women Hackers
- Nela Brown, Chair of G.Hack
- Alex Haché, member of Dones Tech a group of Social Research dedicated to creating digital content, media production and communication. Haché is doctor of economy, cyberfeminist, hacktivist, developer of technopolitical projects, researcher of ICT for public good.
- Klau Kinki, part of Pechblenda LAB, an experimental laboratory where learning arises from raw experimentation and the self-formation where free knowledge emerges.
- Amélie Anglade, member of OpenTechSchool a movement aiming to offer free tech education. Co-founder of Hackership, a full-time 3-month hacker school programme located in Berlin and based on the values of OpenTechSchool. Her work focuses on supporting hackers of all backgrounds to learn and grow, and also she does music information retrieval and recommendation for a living. She presents herself as a music hacker at heart.
Nela Brown, Pechblenda LAB, Amélie Anglade & Alex Haché
G.Hack team brainstorming workshop structure at QMUL 🙂
Katerina and Magdalena discussing mathematical models and how best to teach the coding part of the workshop
Day before the workshop: Patricia, Magdalena and Katerina with G.Hack poster
G.Hack Sonar 2014 Workshop poster
Nela delivering Part 1 of the workshop ...
Magda helping participants resolve 'soundmap' issues 🙂
Workshop participants helping each other download all the 'tools'
Nela chairing Women Hackers panel with Alex Haché, Amélie Anglade, Julito and Klau Kinki
Nela, Magdalena and Patrizia celebrating the end of a loooooong day at Sonar 2014 with gazpacho soup and sangria (whilst Katerina continues hacking with the rest of QMUL troops at Sonar Music Hack Day 🙂
WISE 2013 Awards !
15/11/2013The QMUL team: Prof Ursula Martin, Prof Edmund Robinson, Bertille Calinaud, Katja Knecht (MAT / G.Hack), Ann-Louise Anderson (SEMS / WISE@QMUL), Nela Brown (CogSci / G.Hack) and their guests: Steven Brown, Prof Caroline Wardle and Dr Rona Ramsey had a wonderful evening last night at the WISE2013 Award Ceremony!
Nela and Ursula (nominees for Leader Award and Lifetime Achievement Award) had the great honour of meeting all the other incredible nominees as well as shake hands and chat with the amazing HRH The Princess Royal (who is a big supporter of WISE!)
They managed to bring one award ‘home’ (Nela got the Highly Commended WISE Leader Award) and are looking forward to more awards being given to QMUL next year, flagging up the good work female students and members of staff are doing with the invaluable support from their departments !
A BIG THANK YOU goes out to Bertille Calinaud and Peter McOwan for doing all the nomination paperwork and to Prof Ursula Martin (an amazing supporter of WISE@QMUL and G.Hack activities from the very beginning), who miraculously managed to raise funds for a QMUL dedicated table ! What a star !
The Highly Commended WISE Leader Award, was given in the recognition of all the amazing things Nela has managed to achieve with G.Hack, WISE@QMUL and Flossie and a HUGE THANK YOU goes out to all the ladies who supported Nela over the past 3 years and whose dedication and commitment to these projects greatly contributed to this award !
Until next year !
Left to right: Bertille Calinaud (QMUL Diversity Manager), Katja Knecht (MAT/G.Hack), Nela Brown, (CogSci/G.Hack), Ann-Louise Anderson (SEMS/WISE@QMUL)
G.Hack, Campus Party Europe 2013 Community Partner !
28/08/2013The AWESOME Campus Party Europe is coming to London’s O2 from 2-7 September!
Check out the amazing roaster of talks, workshops and hackathons including Women in Tech Panel on Thursday 5 September at 2pm (Archimedes Stage) featuring Anne – Marie Imafidon (founder of Stemettes), Sarah Lamb (founder of Girl Geek Dinners), Gillian Arnold (Chair of BCS Women), Paula Graham (Director of Fossbox / founder of Flossie), Teresa Schoefield (IEEE/ WiE) and Nela Brown (Chair of G.Hack). Becky Stewart (ex-G.Hack, co-founder of Codasign) and Nela are also doing talks on the Michelangelo Stage the same day (Becky is on at 10am , Nela at 8pm)!
G.Hack is one of the community partners and our members can get discount on tickets by clicking on the banner below.
Happy hacking everyone !!!
A few photos from the event …
Women in Tech panel (Gillian, Nela, Paula, Anne–Marie, Sarah and Teresa) taking questions from the audience !
Nela talking about ZX Spectrum orchestra and other fun stuff 🙂
G.Hack at Digital Summer Camp, 12 July 2013
12/07/2013
The last peeps standing (ok sitting/ possibly falling asleep/ enthusiastically cheering) with a well deserved bottle of cold beer !
G.Hack at Mini Maker Faire, 6 July 2013
06/07/2013All makers were invited to come and show their work at the very first Elephant & Castle Mini Maker Faire on Saturday, 6th of July, at the London College of Communication. It was an exciting, even though really, really hot day out with lots to see and do.
G.Hacker Pollie showed her extremely fun Firefly game and in a brief Lightening Talk we presented G.Hack to all of those seeking refuge in the pleasantly cool auditorium.
Looking forward to more to come!
More about the first Mini Maker Faire:
http://makerfaireelephantandcastle.com
Katja (and Nela) presenting G.Hack
G.Hack at Teen Tech Awards, 24 June 2013
25/06/2013
The Winning Teams of the TeenTech Awards
After having judged the entries in the “Wearable Technology” in the first round of judging to help determine the finalists, G.Hack was invited to help determine the winners in this category at the TeenTech Awards at the Royal Society on 24th of June.
The four finalist teams of the “Wearable Technology” category did an amazing job in presenting to us their ideas and prototypes so that in the end it was a really tough decision to take. The Welland Park Academy from Leicestershire eventually won the race with their “Pressure Boots”, shoes that harness power while you are walking and thus allow charging mobile devices on the go.
Congratulations again to the winners but also to all of the other teams that participated in the Awards. Your ideas and projects have been truly inspiring! Keep it up!
More about the TeenTech Awards at:
TeenTech Awards 2013: The Winners!
Katja discussing the projects with the other two judges of the “Wearable Technology” category, Patrick Bossert (centre) and Dave Deventer (right)
G.Hack at 125th Anniversary of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Queen Mary Celebration, 13 April 2013
13/04/2013
Nela (2nd from right) explaining Sound Mapping London Tea Houses’ inner life to interested alumni and visitors
On April 13th Queen Mary University celebrated 125 years of Electrical and Electronic Engineering with over 100 alumni visiting the school. The celebration was accompanied by a range of talks, a tour of the Mile End campus as well as exhibits and performances of current students and staff.
In the scope of the “Open Labs” track of the event, G.Hack exhibited Sound Mapping London Tea Houses, showing and explaining its technology to an interested audience of technophile alumni. We would like to thank all visitors and alumni for their interest, for inspiring conversations as well as for sharing memories of their student days at Queen Mary with us!
Exhibiting G.Hack members: Katja, Nela
Many thanks to Mi and Tian for helping us to set up the installation!
G.Hack at Peopling the Palace, 17 Feb 2013
17/02/2013
Patrizia, Tian and Katja (from left to right) exploring the sounds of London’s tea house culture
February saw the grand reopening of the People’s Palace to the public with eight exciting days of films, exhibitions and performances. The week of festivities was opened by an “Intergenerational Tea Dance”, an afternoon for all ages, including performing dancers, dance classes, lots of tea and cake. As part of the supporting programme and suiting the occasion, G.Hack presented Sound Mapping London Tea Houses to the interested public.
Again, we would like to thank all members, participants and dancers for the lovely and inspiring afternoon as well as the organising team of the event for their help and support!
Exhibiting G.Hack members: Katja, Mi, Nela, Patrizia, Tian
The Girls Hacking Club present a ‘women in technology’ panel
23/11/2012On 22 November, G.Hack was invited to present a ‘women in technology’ panel as part of The Thursday Club sessions (run by Goldsmiths) at the Centre for Creative Collaboration. I was chairing the panel, Pollie was talking about G.Hack activities and our guests Anna-Maria Spehar-Deleze (WISE@QMUL), Paula Graham (Flossie), Carrie Ann Philbin (Geek Gurl Diaries) and Heidi Harman (Girl Geek Meetup), were talking about the AMAZING projects they are involved with. After the initial introductions we opened up the floor to the questions from the audience and the most interesting debate about the gender balance in STEM ensued (too bad the camera stopped rolling !).
Find out more about our guest speakers and watch videos of their presentations here:
