I attended my first hackathon (#Hack4MentalHealth) in February 2018.

The hackathon was on the topic of mental health, organised by Vibewire. It was overall a very fun event and our team managed to win the joint 2nd place.

Over the course of two days, our team (Sonify) came up with a way to increase awareness around mental health. We tried to make data/stats around mental health more readily available to a broader audience. This was accomplished via music, which is a universal language that also impacts people’s emotions. As a demo we created a short clip based on suicide rates in NSW, which are larger in rural areas compared to the city. On an imaginary road trip along the coast from the south end to the north end of NSW the instruments in the song increase in quantity, volume and force with increasing suicide rate. This idea is targeted at organisations and the general public. Interested people can then get more information about specific mental health issues via QR codes on posters or by using a shazam app.

Our code is based on this idea by Brian Foo, where income inequality on the NYC subway is turned into sound.

Our final product can be found below and you can access our pitch presentation here.

Team Sonify