What better way of understanding the possibilities of a new piece of technology, than playing with it? One of our creatives Katie Harrison has set up SON with the artist Charlotte Freeston to create music promos to do just that. Taking influence from the recent launch of the Vine app, SON used Vine as their concept and camera for their first promo for Rhosyn -Birds which premieres on Art Wednesday. 

Our lovely Katie says: “I am always fascinated by the creative tools that technology gives us, allowing us to become channels to tell wonderful stories. SON allows us to be nimble and daring and explore all these new possibilities. These learnings are applied back into my creative work at Wieden’s to help our clients push new boundaries.” 

On the lyrics, Charlotte notes: "The notion of becoming a bird is finding the freedom and independence from the normal ideals that have percolated into the collective cultural consciousness through the ‘cult’ of the media. We wanted to highlight our generations addiction and constraints with social media".

Inspired by Hockney’s Wolds series, Birds was shot simultaneously on four and nine iPhones housed in a makeshift structure. The Vines were then tweeted to a bespoke account using the #birds and captured on the desktop. The Vine loops were then manipulated and layered to highlight the notion of ‘cult’ through their repetition.

Stream Rhosyn's debut EP 'Elbow of Capture' here:http://soundcloud.com/rrrhosyn/sets/elbow-of-capture/

(H)activate hack weekend with Nokia produces apps for social change

Last week saw the Nokia UK Developer Engagement team put on a hack weekend with Rewired State, our friends at the Guardian and BlueVia (O2 to us UK folks). (H)activate tied into the broader Guardian 'Tech for Social Change' conference, Activate, held on Wednesday.

It was the first time I had fully experienced a full two day hack: 70 developers in a room,  1 task (Develop web and mobile apps to change the world) and under 2 days to deliver. My first learning was you need to come with a fairly developed idea, otherwise you spend the first three hours panicking about what to do and what data there is available. Second learning is when a developer has a red bug on his computer you can't disturb him, he's in the coding zone. Third learning is that sweets and SodaStream keep the geeks coding like mad. Fourth learning is that sleep goes out the window in the quest for a fully functioning prototype – one bloke didn't sleep all weekend, he just hung out all night programming in Kings Cross station. 

So were the hacks any good after just 36 hours work? Yes, I was massively impressed with the 18 hacks, most of which were functioning and not just concepts. The overall winner was SafeTrip, a web & SMS solution aimed at human trafficking. The Nokia prize went to Interact(Your Opinon Matters), a great SMS voting framework that can be used for government polling (think the Census or a referendum) and just as easily for TV voting on X Factor style quizes. If you want to check out all the hacks pop over to the Rewired State blog.

TouchyPeely App: Uniting veggie detritus with hungry compost heaps to reduce waste & produce soil

(H)activate newspaper of all the hackers courtesy of Newspaper Club

PS Alex Rogers has asked me to point out she has nothing to do with this post. Twas written by Alex Franklin.