Recruitment Information Pack v1Geeks-In-Residence 2012

• A funded opportunity worth up to £6k for developers and designers to work with a Scottish cultural organisation on an innovative prototype project you’ve come up with together

• Whatever your discipline, as a Geek-in-Residence you’ll be expected to do main activities as part of the role:

• Exploring (c. 10%) Working together with the Host to identify a project opportunity that best uses your talents to explore an area of interest of theirs

• Making (c. 60%) Creating a tangible prototype as an output of the residency

• Coaching (c 20%) Developing your host’s understanding of development or design by sharing aspects of your methods, your thinking, your networks and your world

• Sharing (c 10%). Documenting your experience through SyncTank - the Sync online magazine

• This is an experimental model which is looking to help Scottish cultural organisations evolve the way they related to technology, design, technologists and designers. It is designed to attract developers and designers who are interested in being part of that mission, not those who are just looking for any kind of work.

What is the Geeks-In-Residence programme?

This opportunity will best suit an articulate, self-starting developer or designer based in or near Scotland with at least 3 yrs experience and who is comfortable working on experimental & collaborative projects

Essential• If you are a developer, you can have either front-end or back-end expertise

• If you are a designer, you can have a specialism in UX, IA or service design

• You have a portfolio of interesting and innovative work going back at least 3 years

• You understand what the Sync programme is trying to achieve and want to be part of the community working towards its vision

Desired

• You have a history of speaking, blogging or writing about your area(s) of expertise/interest

• You have an active interest in at least one of performing arts, visual arts, music or literature

• You can offer a dayrate which offers your best value to the Host and to the Sync programme while still being commercially viable

The skills and experience for the role

This role requires a creative self-starter who enjoys collaboration, people-facing roles and responds well to high levels of trust

• There are five cultural Hosts in 2012 and each Host is allocated £6k (inclusive of VAT) to be spent on the time and expenses of the Geek or Geeks matched to them

• It will be expected that £6k will cover 10-20 days of time including expenses

• Allocations are to be spent by December 15th 2012

• How the allocations are spent time-wise is to be determined by the host and the geeks, e.g. the residency may all take place in a few weeks or it could be spread out over several months

• Geeks may be assigned more than one cultural organisation

• Geeks may be matched with another developer or designer

• Geeks are assigned a producer from the core Sync team to provide guidance & independent support

• While they may work as part of a company through which they bill their time, Geeks-in-Residence applicants apply as named individuals

• Some of your time will be spent on-site with the Host and expenses for travel are included in the overall 6k budget allocated to each Host

Things you should know before applying

This role requires a creative self-starter who enjoys collaboration, people-facing roles and responds well to high levels of trust

How about we meet the five Hosts?

Host 1: Scottish Opera

Scottish Opera is Scotland’s national opera company and the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland. The Company is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2012/13 – with its first performance having been a production of Madama Butterfly at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow on 5 June 1962.

Scottish Opera has a prolific education programme which reaches 36,000 people of all ages and background each year as well as an exciting practice in experimentation and prototyping through Five:15 - Operas Made in Scotland a five-year research and development project to find the next generation of opera-makers, composers and librettists.

About Scottish Opera

Framing for the Scottish Opera Geek-in-Residence

Residency to take place between August and December 2012

www.scottishopera.org.uk

Scottish Opera intends to pair its Geek-in-Residence together with its first ever Composer-in-Residence, Gareth Williams.  The Scottish Opera Geek-in-Residence will work with Gareth to design, develop and test a digital approach by which music and singing can be used to support connection, communication and socialisation for people with the chronic condition of cystic fibrosis.

Primary location: Glasgow

Host 2: macrobert

macrobert offers a huge variety of activities for all ages in the heart of the University of Stirling Campus including live performances, movies, workshops, exhibitions, birthday parties, a fully licensed café, bar and restaurant and one of Scotland’s top pantomime offerings for the festive season. The very best in live entertainment combined with an excellent choice of movies sits alongside some of the most exciting programming for children and young people in Scotland; all presented in a relaxing, family friendly venue with facilities second to none.

About macrobert

Framing for the Scottish Opera Geek-in-Residence

Residency to take place between June and October 2012

www.macrobert.org

In October 2012 macrobert will deliver a festival of performing arts, ranging from theatre to bands, scratch performances to comedy, that appeals to teenagers and students.  The macrobert Geek-in-Residence will work with them to explore developing a prototype that can creatively engage audience members in the festival prior, during and following their attendance at the live event.

Primary location: Stirling

Host 3: Eigg Box

Eigg Box will be a workspace on Eigg for island-based artists and creative businesses to share with visiting artists from Scotland and beyond. Currently in development, for island-based artists and creative businesses, Eigg Box will mean means somewhere better to work, companionship and creative collaboration and a working environment with fewer distractions and more focus than the kitchen table. And for visiting artists, Eigg Box will means coming to join a vibrant and supportive group of like-minded creative souls and experiencing and being influenced by Eigg community life.

About Eigg Box

Framing for the Eigg Box Geek-in-Residence

Residency to take place between July and December 2012

www.eiggbox.com

Eigg Box is a project in development and the Geek-In-Residence will be a prototype residency for the initiative. The project prototype is likely to be one of two sorts - either a creative way of showcasing and encouraging the talents of Eigg residents through music or photography or a system where local and mainland artists can collaborate. Please note that in Eigg electricity is capped at 5kW use at any one time in domestic properties and 10kW in businesses and wired broadband download speeds are up to 6MB.

Location: Eigg

Host 4: Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is a spectacular event which having first taken place in 1950, has an annual attendance of c. 217,000 people with 35% of those from overseas. The Tattoo is performed every weekday evening and twice on Saturdays throughout August and remarkably has never been cancelled due to inclement weather. An international icon with an annual television audience of 100M people worldwide, the Tattoo is one of the twelve festivals comprising Festivals Edinburgh.

About the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Framing for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Geek-in-Residence

Residency to take place between June and December 2012

www.edintattoo.co.uk

Currently undergoing an extensive review of their digital estate, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will work with their Geek-in-Residence to identify innovative interventions appropriate to their unique offer, audience and setting which can be prototypes and potentially scaled up for 2013.

Primary location: Edinburgh

Host 5: Stills

Stills opened in 1977 as Scotland’s first gallery specialising in contemporary photography and have since extended their facilities to provide high quality photographic darkrooms and digital production facilities in Scotland. Theirintegrated programmes illuminate the fascinating medium of photography, exploring everything from its technical and aesthetic developments through to the central role it plays in contemporary culture. Production and exchange form the heart of our activities as their work with artists and audiences to catalyse the creation of new ideas, artworks and dialogues.

About Stills

Framing for the Stills Geek-in-Residence

Residency to take place between July and December 2012

www.stills.org

Primary location: Edinburgh

Stills are interested in their Geek-In-Residence exploring innovative solutions to three general areas - deepening their engagement with specific user groups such as tourists and young people/students, increasing the use of their intangible asset of advice and expertise and increasing the use of their tangible asset of their photography reference library.

Before applying please make sure you have read and understood

the following information.It’s kind of important.

Key information for applicants

Before submitting your application, you will have to check a box to confirm you’ve read and understood this information

• Mobile and web developers of all kinds and UX/UI and service designers are eligible for this opportunity

• Choice of the successful applicants is at the discretion of the core Sync team

• While people working within companies and agencies are fully eligible, applications have to be made by you as a named individual

• You may be assigned to more than one cultural organisation

• You may be matched with another developer or designer so that the Host has access to a team with a wider set of skills and therefore may not receive the Host’s £6k allocation all yourself

• The Sync team may ask you for additional information to support your application

• Sync reserves the right to contact applicants should any future similar or related opportunities arise during the course of the programme

Apply by May 8th atwelcometosync.com/geeks/apply

•Geek recruitment to closes May 8th

•Longlisted applicants interviewed Skype/F2F by May 31st

•Hosts matched with their Geeks-in-Residence by June 15th

•Kick off, prototype development & delivery (June 15th-Dec 15th)

•Residencies complete by December 15th

What happens now

Sync is a new two-year programme for the cultural sector in Scotland – all about making, prototyping and innovation in the space where culture, technology and design meet.

Sync consists of the landmark Culture Hack Scotland event, a Geeks-in-Residence programme and SyncTank the future-facing online magazine.

Sync is supported by Creative Scotland and you can find out more at www.welcometosync.com