Artek Circle is a new initiative to get designers, artists and engineers working together in new and integrated ways. The idea was born of a desire to bring different skill and mindsets together to make new work/objects that are satisfying for both. With the onset of the worldwide Maker movement and the proliferation of cheap and readily usable technologies made for novices, more artists are integrating technology into their work and more technologists are getting creative in new ways.

However, they rarely work together. Frequently, artists are asked to prettify or represent science and engineers or scientists are called upon to ‘technologise’ art works. This initiative asks how we can work together in more holistic ways, from creation to execution. David Mckeown (Dublin Maker, Science Communicator) and Hilary O’Shaughnessy (Artist) decided to begin with a weekend for artists and scientist/engineers to explore, collaborate, converse and make work together from scratch. The weekend will take place in Project Arts Centre Temple Bar on the 10th-11th May 2014. Up to fifty collaborators will be invited to take part in the weekend.

Hacking is a much maligned word, which for many conjures up images of dark rooms and organised criminals looking for our credit card numbers. However, recently, the word Hacker has been cast in a new light and has come to mean create without purpose, explore, break to discover. It is not solely limited to programming or networks. We were inspired by international hack days, but also frustrated at their limitations. We see this initiative as a natural progression for technologists, creatives and inbetweens to get together and create exciting projects. Hacking for us is a spirit of fearless creativity and collaboration.

The form of our project is an intensive two days of hacking, with teams being formed to collaborate on projects for the weekend.

Our loose plan is informally to show some of the projects on Sunday, however, this is not the focus of our work and the end is a way to close the session together. As we value process as much as results, then we encourage interested parties to come and visit us over the weekend to see how we work as opposed to judge what we came up with.

Our goal is to plant the seeds of new collaborative work practices, begin new conversations about different modes of creativity and to have fun.

That said, we are looking for support from curious and interested parties. We volunteer, so we can have nice things. Making this event happen requires support, if you are interested in helping us in terms of sponsorship, or want to know more or are just curious, please contact us for a conversation (hello@artekcircle.com)