But hacker habits die hard as shown in Sly's hands-free champagne glass. Edwin and Neil are like two boys in a toy shop playing with random electronic stuff on the hackercamp shelves, now finally free to explore and tinker at will. Tijmen can't be parted with a blue gnome hat, the winning ikGnome team.
A zealous wave of minimalism hits hackercamp this afternoon driven by project co-ordinator Deborah's military style campaign. By 6pm a multitude of PICNIC guests is due to tour the hackercamp installations, starting with a screening of the project videos. The electronic spaghetti bolognese of cables, the stuff of Health and Safety nightmares, is untangled and wound up into neat bundles by patient hands. Tiny gadgets and clunky contraptions alike vaporise as order gradually emerges out of chaos.
Eight projects have been incubated in this space. Twenty hackers and as many back-up workers have inhabited the camp for almost twenty hours daily for the last 6 days, not to mention the whole Mediamatic office which squeezed in here for the final frenzied days. Such has been the level of focus on project completion that the bars and clubs on the camp doorstep were never a temptation. To a hacker with an amazing idea to be realised in 5 days there is no place for worldly distractions. The foreign hackers have barely seen more of the city of Amsterdam than the view from the number 10 tram.
Now it's finally time to party!!!
