BERLIN · for the last few weeks we had the pleasure to host THE BIKE BRIGADE an exhibition presenting a selection of DIY Bike Hacks with different functions and designs, showing the variety of the movement by offering an insight into the work of makers.

with designers, upcyclers, bike sharing platform and growing number of interested people, bike hacking is nowadays a subculture developing into a movement.

but why do people hack bikes?
many of them have an idea about new functions and designs that are not provided by the conventional industry. there is an urge from people to design their own solutions.

hacking bikes doesn't require a license, most of the designs are open source and accessible to anyone interested in it. and it is not just about the bikes, but also the functions and added features, like digital art devices and spatial elements.

with the exhibition, workshops and urban intervention THE BIKE BRIGADE connected makers, hackers and artists.

see some pics HERE

our aim was to expose the bike hack movement to a wider audience and make it visible also to those who are fascinated by it but never had the chance to really get involved. acting as a node, we wanted to make resources easily accessible to anyone interested.

we`d like to thank all the participants and the many players in the scene:

Christophe Vaillant from Werkstatt-Lastenrad, an Open Design Platform collecting instructions manuals in an easy accesible wiki for DIY enthusiasts. special thanks also to Tom Hansing from Velogistics, a bike sharing platform which allows anyone to find a cargo bike suiting their needs... as for instance to bring your clothes to a flea market. thanks to Christophe and Tom we found the right connections within the scene.

we had representatives of Prinzessinin Garten, Open Design city, and Kunst-Stoffe-Berlin... which also hack bikes but have much more to offer. from urban gardening, open design workshops to upcycling and all sorts of social initiatives.

we`d also like to thank Hans Boes from Oikos for running the workshops and showing us the "Long John" Hack!

Niels for bringing around his very well engineered electric cargo bike from tempelhoferfeld.

Trial & Error for the KIEZMOBIL , a massive cargo trolley to make workshops in the neighbourhood.

Something Fantastic, an architecture & Design collective who created the Dumpling Express, a solar energy cooker on a bike, which was üpresented in june during the Weltaustellung 2012 in tempelhoferfeld.

we also had some historical pieces, a 1910 ritscha from vietnam wich made it clear that diy bikes are nothing new, but an ever expanding culture.

we also had the opportunity to show a very special bike hack project currently running in Medellin, Carrito Cultural , by Miodrag Kuc # 3555 from ParaArtFormations  and Juan Naranjo #6010 from the creative collective Deuniti .

as mentioned before, the focus was not just on the bikes but also on the different functions and technologies they can have on board. as for instance the Light Rider from Graffiti Research Lab... with its BlitzTag system allowing people to draw with laser on huge facades, or the SMS slingshot which lets you write a text and splash it on a wall with digital colour! -  we are looking forward to see some more great  stuff from these guys soon !

we also had activist initiatives like the soundsystem bike for demonstrations made Ben Go ... and how not to mention the KLARA GEIST soundsystem bike, by Fanny and Willi, blasting the air with deep waves and getting everyone in the groove...

it was interesting to host also some more product design oriented bike like the URBANe by Ibullit, a cutting edge cargo bike with mp3 player, phone charger, electric wheels... a perfect city vehicle to transport your shopping home but also for a picnic in the park with friends, you can plug a soundsystem in it and carry beers ;)

however our intention was not to expose the best bike in town the real purpose was to redirect people to those who really hack bikes and run workshops around town.

was actually interesting to see how many bike enthusiast came around and parked their bike in front of the kunsthalle during the exhibition... it almost felt like a convention!

THE BIKE BRIGADE was running from the 3rd of august until the 15th. but im sure we will do it again!

stay tuned!