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You are here: Home / Creativity / Hack yourself into Danish culture

Hack yourself into Danish culture

September 28, 2014 By Line Frederiksen

OK. Why on earth are these messy papers blocking the beautiful sight of a Friday afternoon from the huge panoramas at the National Gallery of Denmark?

No, it is not another SMK-night.

Hack4dk, SMK, National Museum of Arts, hackathon, cultural heritage

Explanation is as simple as it is fun.

The lovely museum hosts a so-called “Hackathon” in with programmers, sofware developers, artists, designers, historians and journalists get together for 50 hours to pitch ideas and make them come as close to reality as possible before deadline. And since there are a lot of different skills working at the same project in groups, you can actually get pretty far during just one weekend.

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, hackathon, presentations of data, cultural heritage

But no Hackathon without loads of data to play with. That is why 8 cultural institutions had just 2 minutes each to present their data to the hackers before the big pitching of ideas.

They were:

  • Det Danske Filminstitut
  • Dansk Kulturarv/DR
  • MMEx – Meaning Making Experience
  • Det Kongelige Bibliotek
  • Statens Arkiver
  • Nationalmuseet
  • Kulturstyrelsen
  • Statens Museum for Kunst (the host, National Gallery of Denmark).

All of them had files, pictures, numbers, objects, calculations etc. etc. to join the show. So what do we make of that?

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, early notes

My group wanted to challenge the power of the curators. Why are they the only ones who decide what hangs on the wall of the gallery? Why not let the audience decide? And to spice things further up we adopted the idea from dating-app Tinder – like or dislike this painting with a swipe of your hand on your mobile. If you dislike, you will get other paintings to choose from within the same span. And in the end the gallery will put up the painting with most likes.

Who knows what that might bring forth of long lost treasures?

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, hackathon, research in group

However, if you need to work with the Tinder-model you will have to get to know Tinder a little better. That explains why the designers in my group, Kristina and Peter suddenly got busy creating a profile on Tinder … on a late Friday night … with a beer at hand … We swear – it was RESEARCH!

A few hours later we came up with this app-prototype on paper. Taped professionally on a dashboard we decided to call it a night 🙂

Hackathon5

Saturday and Sunday were much equally buzzing with hackers, trying to get their ideas into real life. Actually, the whole stage area next to the café looked like this:

Hack4dk, SMK, National Museum of Arts, hackathon, cultural heritage

During all this buzzing (and the POP-programme) our paper-sketches started looking like this:

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, hackathon, prototyping app, POP

But no hard work without a little self-spoiling as well. Our host has taken good care of us with great drinks and food during the weekend.

Note the acid green colour of the table in the café, compared to rest of the neutral/white surroundings. I never quite understood why …

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, hackathon, drinks

I cannot believe the delicious food we had Saturday night. Thanks to the staff in the kitchen 🙂

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, hackathon, food

Back to business at the Serious Sunday. It was time for all the 12 groups to present their final product – or at least as final as it gets.

My group finished the prototype of the “let the audience decide”-app. To make it completely ready for use it needs to be integrated with an iBeacon placed on selected paintings to connect with the audience’s smartphones. But the design looks fantastic already – with a little (BIG) help from my new designer-friends in the group.

This is what you may meet during a future visit at the National Gallery of Denmark:

(In Danish it will ask you if you like what you see on the wall).

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, hackathon, prototype, app

And if you do not like it – have another pick. Here is what it looks like:

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, hackathon, prototype, app

Nevertheless, it could not compete with the winners of the Hackathon. They have created an amazing technique to watch paintings through all the material layers by using your iPad:

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, hackathon, material layers of paintings

That is why they deserve their award – a cookbook with as much Danish cultural heritage as the Price Brothers can manage. Look at their smiling faces 🙂

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, hackathon-winners, cultural heritage

That was the wrap of my first Hack4dk. But I guess it will not be the last one. Once again, I am really impressed what a group of people can manage to build up during a weekend, as long as they make use of all skills in the group.

It was great fun 😀 And since I did not win an award for my effort I will at least wear my hacker-t-shirt from the goodie bag with pride until next year.

Learn more about #Hack4dk.

Read the host’s own report from the weekend (in Danish).

Stay tuned – and discover if any of our ideas might be adopted here.

If you are one of my fellow hackers – take a trip down memory lane with the hack4dk-pictures on Flickr.

Hack4dk, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark, goodie bags

More fun from my site:

Hack4dk 2017, Enigma Museum, poster for presentationLet Death entertain you #hack4dk, Copenhagen, DR Koncerthuset, what if ...A weekend of playing “what if …” 3D-printing, Labitat, Makerspace,, CopenhagenBroken? Let’s fix it . Or invent it … Made Festival 2014, Musicon, Roskilde, MakersCelebrate DIY Orange Makerspace, Orange Innovation, cool DIYMake space 4 Orange Makerspace Growstack, FoodJam, AAU-Sydhavnen, pulled mushroom, smoked on bourbonWhat’s Cooking in future?

Filed Under: Creativity, DIY, History, Innovation, Network, Science, Workshop Tagged With: 50 hours Hackathon, cultural heritage, National Gallery of Denmark

About Line Frederiksen

My name is Line Frederiksen. I am a journalist with trained skills and experience in classical journalism as well as communication journalism.

About me

Line Frederiksen

journalist 4 experiences

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About me

My name is Line Frederiksen. I am a journalist with trained skills and experience in classical journalism as well as communication journalism.

Read more about me

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