How to organize a summer academy

In 2015 Hackers & Designers launched their first summer academy. Having gone trough the collective efforts of investigating the format of a summer academy, coordinating, curating and producting the 10-day long elaborate program, H&D decided to share that learning process with this printed documenation.

10 steps towards a Summer Academy

1: Define your motivation. For example:

H&D belives designers and artists, should be empowered with the tools of the digital realm including coding and hardware usage and construction. Conversely programmers and makers should be more comfortable and effective in engaging in creative process through familiarity with the vocabulary of designers and artists. All disciplines should become more comfortable in theoretical and social discourse, and thus be asking questions such as not only “can we” but “should we”. Having organized H&D meet-ups for 2 years we have tested addressed our approach extensively and could incorporate learnings in our considerations for planning a more elaborate program such as the H&D Summer Academy.

2: Find a catchy title

Stirred by the title "About Bugs, Bots and Bytes" H&D curated a hands-on and engaging program. Considering the participants we had in mind were coming from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines, we decided for a "fun" title that triggers imagination no matter what the skills and interests were.

3. Find a suitable location

The biggest part of the program took place in De PUNT, an art & project space in the center of Amsterdam. H&D is a mostly Amsterdam-based initiative and have established a local infrastructure that made organization and coordination manageable. One should consider practical aspects, such as: Where and how to do groceries as well as traveltime for contributors and participants. Doing a program in another, not explored context demands much more investigation and research and therefore has an influence on the workload and the budget.

4. DIY approach

(...) Fostering an understanding of contemporary digital culture and maximising participation ambiguities and misconceptions about topics like privacy, surveillance, open source, user-controlled platforms, role of algorithms, digital-self and identity were researched in a playful and hands-on manner. > no hierachies. > learning by making stuff crucial

3: $$$$$$$

Many funds like to see that your enterprise generates income. Think well about if you like to charge for your program and make sure the fee is appropriate to the audience you are inviting. The higher the price you are asking the higher the expectation. The cover charge of the H&D Summer Academy was €350,00 per participant and covered the 10 day program, a welcome dinner, daily lunches and an arduino kit.

4: Plan A, B, C

If you are planning to apply for funding, be aware that it can take up to 4-6 months to hear back. You might not receive fundings at all. Always incorporate the worst case scenario in your planning and don't rely to much on one source. This is challenging in terms of planning, communication, finding contributors who are flexible enough. We have experienced a refusal from a fund and requested revision. Eventually we received some of the funds. The process was very time-consuming and challenged us in terms of changing the plans accordingly. However we decided from the beginning that our priority is to guarantee a high qualitiy workshop program, which could be always covered by the

5. Line-up

Make sure you have

6. Cross-disciplinary approach

The immersive program of the Summer Academy allowed participants to build relationships and investigate new technology and design media, and equipped them with technological tools, collaboration opportunities, cross-disciplinary vocabulary, and an understanding of tech and design tools in a social context.