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As a pilot for our Publishing House of the Future project, we held a Hack-Fest weekend at CodeBase in Edinburgh on the weekend of 25-26 July.
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The Publishing House of the Future was made possible by support from Creative Scotland's Time To Shine Digital Fund and was one of the initial cohort of 10 pilot projects supported.

 

The Setup

Hosted by Claire Stewart (The Electric Bookshop) and supported by a team of creatives in residence, participants were divided into creative teams and each team was provided with a flexible but challenging brief. Participants worked together in teams against the clock to create innovative publications which they presented to the full cohort at the end of the weekend.

 

The Creatives in Residence

Over the weekend there were presentations, demos and talks by the team of creatives in residence, who also made themselves available to advise and assist with the publishing projects. Their experience and expertise covered a range of areas including publishing, design, illustration, podcasts, social media, social publishing, poetry and spoken word, graphic novels, programming, robotics, writing for games and interactive stories. Read more about the Creatives in Residence.

 

The Participants

The participant teams also had wide variety of skills, knowledge and interests which they incorporated into their publishing projects. Some participants were only able to attend for one day of the Hack-Fest but didn't let that stop them! 

Some of the things they brought to the table included coding and web design, creative writing, design, graphic design, illustration, film-making, publishing and marketing.

 

The Projects

The briefs given to the team were a flexible set of parameters to inform the shape and content of the projects, working on the principle that having some limitations stimulates creativity. Through team discussions the publications were planned and their shape and format decided. Roles were assigned within teams and work began.