As part of the Nokia Lumia 800 launch, Wieden + Kennedy, Nokia and onedotzero collaborated to create alphalabs.cc, an experiment that merges technology and the arts.

This project started with the objective of getting Nokia’s new Windows Phone devices into the hands of developers. In the light of the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, the mix of existing and potential developers for the new platform proved to be diverse, which created an exciting opportunity. Rather than simply sending the phones out to people, we identified one thing that we could help to encourage: creativity.

As an agency, creativity is what we stand for, and creative coding is something that we believe in and aspire to. So our goal became to create an initiative in which Nokia and Microsoft combine forces with the digital arts organisation onedotzero to encourage creative coding on their platform. The ingredients so far are a great new device, the potential in the Windows Phone 7 APIs, an inspiring setting, some amazing examples created by inspiring people, a website to showcase creative explorations, and an event and a competition to launch it.

So on Saturday 26^th November we invited a selection of hand-picked artists and developers to attend the launch event at the onedotzero_adventures in motion festival at London’s BFI.

The event kicked off with Keith Varty, Head of EDX, Nokia UK/EIRE and Will Coleman, Mobile Product Manager at Microsoft UK, who introduced the new Nokia Lumia 800 and talked about why they were excited by the new possibilities that the partnership created. Will Coleman then led the crowd through the exciting creative, design, and technical opportunities that the combination of the Nokia Lumia 800 handset and the WP7 platform has created.

Shane Walter, co-founder of onedotzero, gave an inspirational talk about code as a medium for creativity, and showcased some exciting examples of this in practice. In order to highlight the diversity within the audience he asked everyone in the room to introduce themselves to the person next to them – everyone got carried away chatting to each other, which in turn demonstrated the interesting potential collaborations in the room.

Shane then introduced three experiments that had been created by selected teams of artists and developers for the purpose of inspiring the audience with real working demonstrations. The work showcases the creative possibilities of the platform and the phone, and was impressively developed in just two weeks.

First, Stuart Warren-Hill and Team Holotronica showcased Vequencer, the world’s first real time, multi-device audio visual sequencer. Stuart is one half of the ground breaking act Hexstatic who specialise in audio and visual experiences. He collaborated with a team of developers;  Martin Caine, Simon Jackson and Matt Lacey, who are all part of the WP7 and XNA user groups and had worked day and night to create this impressive app.

Next, Max Hattler – a progressive moving image artist from London who worked with IndieSkies, an exciting young games development start up based in Derby, to create Kaleidobooth. Kaleidobooth is a kaleidoscopic camera inspired by children's toys and psychedelia. It uses the Lumia 800’s 8MP camera and microphone, as well as the Motion API to enable the user to create and interact with the visuals.

The last demo was Redshift, created by leading digital design studio Field.io and developers Treehouse Dev. Redshift is a prototype for a racing game through music videos. Although in its early stages, this demo is a visually stunning experience supported by a brilliant soundtrack from record label Numbers.

These experiments clearly demonstrated the exciting possibilities of the platform and how quickly experiments can be created.

To finish the day, Shane introduced the launch competition for alphalabs.cc, which is designed to encourage artists and developers with cash prize incentives to share the experimental apps that they create on the WP7 platform. Ten runners up will each win  £500, while the winner will receive £5000.

After the event all attendees were given their free Nokia Lumia 800 as well as a complimentary pass to one of the onedotzero_adventures in motion festival screenings which went on through into the evening.

The competition is open for submissions until 09.01.2012, and will be judged by representatives of Nokia and onedotzero.

In order to enter the competition, entrants simply document their experiments, and submit them to alphalabs.cc after creating a profile in the site. The judges will be looking for prototypes and poof-of-concepts that demonstrate a creative use of the platform. This is about new ideas and experimentation and not necessarily fully finished apps.

For more information and updates on the competition please visit alphalabs.cc.