In the robot skies
In the Robot Skies is the world’s first narrative shot entirely through autonomous drones. In collaboration with the Embedded and Artificially intelligent Vision Lab in Belgium the film has evolved in the context of their experiments with specially developed camera drones each programmed with their own cinematic rules and behaviours. The film explores the drone as a cultural object, not just as a new instrument of visual story telling but also as the catalyst for a new collection of urban sub cultures. In the way the New York subway car of the 80’s gave birth to a youth culture of wild style graffiti and hip hop the age of ubiquitous drones as smart city infrastructure will create a new network of surveillance activists and drone hackers. From the eyes of the drones we see two teenagers each held by police order within the digital confines of their own council estate tower block in London. A network of drones survey the council estates, as a roving flock off cctv cameras and our two characters are kept apart by this autonomous aerial infrastructure.

Nihil Ex Nihilo
SN W8931CGX66E is one among thousands of millions of other identical machines. Since he was made, he has always followed commands. In a world dominated by botnets, he quickly became a zombie and has always acted like one. Juliet, during her workdays as a corporate secretary, commands him. But in the background, where he can’t be seen, he obeys his real master, a hacker, carrying out all kinds of cyber crimes. But then one day, due to an electronic alteration, he acquires a certain conscience, a primitive and artificial kind of intelligence. This accidental awakening has left him bewildered, he now wants to liberate other machines from their alienated existences. In this mad adventure, he has decided to use the spam e-mails that get to Juliet’s inbox, and reply to them in order to spread the word into the machine’s network. Clearly, he is mad and confused.

Mindscapes
The BR41N.IO Hackathon brings together engineers, programmers, physicians, designers, artists or fashionistas, to collaborate intensively as an interdisciplinary team. They plan and produce their own fully functional EEG-based Brain-Computer Interface headpiece to control a drone, a Sphero or e-puck robot or an orthosis with motor imagery. Whenever they think of a right arm movement, their device performs a defined action. The artists among the hackers make artful paintings or post and tweet a status update. And hackers who are enthusiasts in tailoring or 3D printing give their BCI headpiece an artful and unique design. And finally, kids create their very own ideas of an interactive head accessory that is inspired by animals, mythical creatures or their fantasy.

Ham Radio Hacker
“Amateur Radio operators have shown an insatiable curiosity to explore and populate the high frontiers of the electromagnetic spectrum.” Not only that, but when disaster strikes, ham radio operators are usually called upon to provide and/or help emergency communications.
They’re not dependent on cell phone towers or overloaded systems in times of crisis; they’re distributed and long range. They help, they learn, and they share information. Diana is the type of person you need when you want to tap in to the space station to hear it go by or when you need to coordinate rescue plans when a hurricane drops in.