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Check out these subversively dumb projects from the Stupid Hackathon

Pointlessness as protest was on parade this weekend at the Stupid Shit No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon.

The Stupid Hackathon lived up to its name. (Courtesy photo)
Lift your brow from the scorched terrorscape of high technocapitalism, look directly into the stupid sun, and smile.

Dozens of Brooklyn and Manhattan tech weirdos convened this weekend for the second Stupid Shit No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon, a “one-day event where participants conceptualize and create projects that have no value whatsoever.”
There was the Chrome extension NonAd Blocker by Miklos Pataky and Carl Jamilkowski. It blocks every part of websites except for the ads, so you can skip the drivel and get to the bottom line when perusing web content. It’s pending review in the Chrome store.


The Cheesebot pushes the boundaries of 3D printing into the gray area between industrial products and food as a 3D printer that prints in Velveeta. It’s the work of Tyler Erdman, Morgan Steward, David Leach, Brian Wu, Andy Doro and Dano Wall.

The Cheesebot is a 3D printer for cheese.

The Cheesebot is a 3D printer for cheese. (Courtesy images)


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The Stupid Hackathon is the child of Amelia Winger-Bearskin and Sam Lavigne, who were classmates at NYU’s ITP program, where the hackathon was also held.
Winger-Bearskin is the director of the DBRS Innovation Lab, a place where “beautiful things are made with Big Data.” She is also an artist in residence at Gowanus’s Pioneer Works.
We profiled Lavigne here last week (Sam Lavigne says there is nothing good on the internet) and also wrote about one of his most recent projects, the Animated Advice Hotline, a collaboration between Cat Frazier and Lavigne’s Useless Press.
Another hacker we’ve covered before is Nicole He, for her Tinder-swiping robot (complete with creepy disembodied hand).
Well, at the Stupid Hackathon she went in:


Another slyly pointless hardware project was the Retro Storage ultra-low-capacity USB drive, by Craig Pickard. In the relentlessly innovative world of technology, it can sometimes be satisfying to handle old materials. With Retro Storage, you can once again use floppy disks to store data, 1.44 MB at a time.
https://twitter.com/IamCraigPickard/status/696140615051059201
Mikei Huang created a virtual reality game called Fireplace. It’s a game that let’s you look at a fireplace in virtual reality.

All these projects are terrific, but without the capital and network support to get them off the ground, we can only assume that many of them will never make it to market. That’s why Will Newman created C.U.L.T.S. It’s a “for-prophet” incubator to help new, unique spiritual verticals get off the ground.

C.U.L.T.S. is an incubator that helps spiritual verticals get off the ground.

C.U.L.T.S. is an incubator that helps spiritual verticals get off the ground. (Courtesy image)


There are a lot more great projects.

Check them out here

Series: Brooklyn
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