Tag Archives: finch

Using Innovation for Good at SXSW

The interactive-film-music conference juggernaut SXSW (South by SouthWest) comes around early March and this year I and Emad Tahtouh are lucky enough to be panelists. Reactive and Finch will present together our joint work for ‘The Most Powerful Arm‘. In the panel ‘Using Innovation for Good‘ we discuss the possibilities of using innovation and experimental technology for worthy causes.

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And best of all, you can participate by tweeting question that will be written in real time by ‘The Most Powerful Arm’ robot itself, live, in the room! Use the hashtag #SXSWArm and it shall turn into words on paper.

The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented

The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented

Here are the details of Emad’s and my panel: http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP22776

Tim and Emad at IAB Mixx Awards

If you happen to attend the interactive part of SXSW, please connect with us on SXSW’s social platform and/or say hi at our panel.

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I am also currently piecing together my own schedule of favourite events, which you can publicly see here. Maybe we can match interests or share interesting events:
http://schedule.sxsw.com/user_events/628a38f5b2d3793e35cb91f72719527cabe74cd0

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Gold at IAB Mixx Awards

Spending a week in our Reactive New York office was crowned last night by winning a Gold at the IAB Mixx Awards. With me was Emad, Director of Creative Technology at Finch, a long time collaborator and mate.

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Here is the IAB’s award pageScreen Shot 2013-09-25 at 1.17.01 PM

Next highlight here in New York will be our Reactive night out on Thursday. It will be held at co-working space AlleyNYC near Times Square and features Farrah Bostic, my colleague Carl and yours truly. If you are in New York please drop in and say hi:

http://tomorrowevening.eventbrite.com

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Reactive at AdTech 2013 Melbourne

If you are in Melbourne next week, come and join us from Reactive and people from brands like CocaCola, Facebook, eBay, CBA, Nike and AusPost for a great two days. AdTech Melbourne 2013 brings together big data clouds, geeky innovation chic and powerful advertisers and agencies.

Tim Buesing at the 2011 AdTech Conference

Tim Buesing at the 2011 AdTech Conference

Together with Emad from Finch and Johnny from Save Our Sons I will present our case of ‘The Most PowerfulArm Ever Invented‘. The broader topic of using ‘Innovation for Good‘ will hopefully trigger a lively discussion.

AdTech Melbourne

See below a look at CNET’s coverage of our launch event with Emad explaining the work

The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented

This is a project we at Reactive worked extremely hard for over the last 2 months. It’s called ‘The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented” and this is its story.

The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented

The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented

Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) suffer from progressive deterioration of their muscles. The kids lose the ability to use their arms and for example sign their name very early in their life. At the same time the Australian government does not have a policy on this disease, meaning there is no research support to help halt or cure DMD. This is why we created The Most Powerful Arm, a bionic arm with which you can help wake up the politicians. Please sign a petition to the Australian government, asking them to start supporting the important research on this crippling disease. Watch the trailer below:

The arm is publicly installed, first in Customs House Sydney, and now in Ariel Book Store. It takes your signature via your Facebook login, also accesible thorough your mobile phone if you happen to be in front of the installation. It then signs the petition for you, with a real pen on paper. It uses the original handwriting of one of the children affected, Jacob Lancaster, which we turned into a typeface. A photo camera will then take a picture of each signature and post it to the respective signee’s Facebook wall.

I really appreciate any help you can give to the cause. We have smashed the original target of 20,000 which was required to have the petition considered by parliament. But the more signatures we get, the more weight it will have. Please add your signature at TheMostPowerfulArm.com and if you want and can afford to, you can also donate to make the trials happen.

Below you find our  Making Of The Most PowerfulArm that explains the whole signing experience in detail.

Here are some photos from our launch day in Customs House.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tbuesing/sets/72157633141554743/show

The Most Powerful Arm is a collaboration between ReactiveFinch and Havas Worldwide / Red Agency. Special shout out goes to Emad Tahtouh who heads the creative technology at Finch and who not only had the idea but also tirelessly worked on all the robotics, video, photos and backend technology to make the arm the most powerful ever invented.

Best of VIVID Lights

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Sydney’s VIVID Light is drawing to a close, but you still have a chance to experience some of the fascinating interactive light installations created by international artists. Have a look at a video of the opening night.

I was honoured to curate a Best Of VIVID Light for TimeOut magazine which you can read here. The ‘Screaming Rapture’ proves to be a real crowd pleaser as it is supereasy to engage with and rewards your participation immediately.

VividLight

We at Mojo are especially excited that MPU ‘Snake The Planet’ (which we documented in collaboration with Finch) is part of the selection. The guys from MPU have upped the ante and managed to add an iPad app to the game. You can download it for free in the app store here.

So go on, stroll through the night and play a game of Snake on various buildings in The Rocks, including the MCA. But hurry, all light installations end on June 11.