CONTEST: Design A Device To Keep Your Phone From Smashing Into Smithereens

CONTEST DEADLINE EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 7TH — SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY NOW.

Let’s face it, we’re madly in love with our mobile phones. They’re the first thing we see when we wake up in the morning and the last thing we look at before we go to bed. They’re our constant companions throughout the day, our lifeline to friends, family, information and entertainment. We feel a sense of panic when they’re not around or being unresponsive. They’ve become among our most prized and precious possessions, commanding a weird kind of reverence and adulation.

But Free Fall High Score is an app that aims to change all that by challenging us to be a little more reckless with our beloved devices.

Developed at our Art Hack Weekend event at Eyebeam last month, Free Fall High Score is the first in a line of “antagonistic mobile device apps” that intend to subvert our relationship with technology. It encourages you to drop your phone from high places in order to achieve the longest duration of free fall. The app records a video of the fall and uploads it to a global competition page, where a leaderboard keeps tabs on the longest and most dangerously impressive drops. The yet-to-be-released app and all the user-generated drop videos will be featured at our Creators Project NY event this October in an exhibition installation, accompanied by a live phone drop competition at the event itself.

FREE FALL HIGH SCORE PHONE PRESERVER DESIGN CONTEST

And here’s where the fun starts. In anticipation of the app’s debut, the group behind FFHS are holding a Phone Preserver Design Contest from now through October 7th. You can participate in their adult egg drop out in DUMBO by designing a “phone preserver” to encase your phone and keep it safe during the fall. Anything you can come up with to stop a falling device from smashing to bits upon impact is fair game, and they’re giving bonus points for style. Check out the Judging Criteria and Constraints over on their contest page.

The FFHS team will select their favorite phone preservers to participate in a live drop at our Creators Project event. Don’t worry—should you be selected, you won’t actually have to use your own phone (unless, of course, you want to!). They’ll be supplying testers with a brand new video-enabled iPod Touch, which participants will get to keep after the drop (assuming it survives). The devices and videos captured during the fall will then be integrated into the DUMBO exhibition and showcased in all their glory for the duration of the event. The selected drop contestants will also receive VIP tickets to our 2-day art and technology festival, featuring musical performances, art installations, film screenings, panels and more.

Anyone can participate, but you’ll need to be able to get the preserver to New York City by October 9th in advance of the event. So grab a bunch of friends and start designing! You’ve got until midnight on October 7th to get your design in. You can SUBMIT your entry here.