PROJECT: Sketch or Die Scandinavia

Position: Project Manager and Curator.

Sketch or Die Scandinavia, the beautiful Mexican project that I found by accident on the Internet one night and I had the honor to produce the first international version of it. The project consisted basically in a group of illustrators locking themselves in a room and drawing non-stop under 48hrs what people wished through social media (twitter & facebook).

I didn’t hesitate in sending a mail asking them if I could borrow their idea to produce it in Sweden. After a few emails, I met with one of the creators in Barcelona, as he happened to be there studying at that time. I think in general they were skeptic in the beginning, I mean why would they borrow their project to a stranger…And to be produced in Sweden!! They finally agreed and we ended up working together to produce Sketch or Die Scandinavia in Malmö.

We managed to produce Sketch or Die Scandinavia on 5 months through skype meetings and tons of mails. We got into the project great artists: Kristofer Ström (SWE), Basti Santa (SWE), Rickard Grönkvist (SWE), Lina Eriksson (SWE), Stine Hvid (DK) and Jonathan Mthsn (NOR) and around 15 guests.

To produce this project was a whole new experience for me. When you produce an event, you used to count your success through visitors.

PROJECT: Geek Girls Mexico

In spring 2010 three fantastic girls ( Anna Oscarsson , Emma Estbornand Kristin Heinonen) got the initiative to organise the first Geek Girl Meetup Öresund in the city of Helsingborg, Sweden. A whole day with inspiring sessions by other interesting, smart and fantastic women making it out there!!! 100 Geeks united, networking and exchanging experiences under a whole day. The concept started in Stockholm, then this trio brought it to Öresund, and from there the idea for Geek Girl Meetup Copenhagen, driven by an amazing woman Henriette Weber started!

I decided it would be interesting to bring that project to México, specifically to Guadalajara, where I had my university network. A couple of months later I co-produced the first Geek Girl Meetup Mexico  together with Elizabeth & Jackeline Maldonado, Karla Gradilla and Poke Garcia.

Geek Girls Mexico is still alive and just had their 10th anniversary. I don’t participate so much anymore due to my latest work load, but I get invited from time to time to talk about how everything started, or just talk about what I think about the movement.


PROJECT: I LOVE ROBOTS

When I started thinking about I LOVE ROBOTS, I wanted to create a project to work with those kids who stick up for some reason, can be their passion for a certain thing or the way they do things. I wanted to work with kids that were interested enough in something. So we went out to the schools and said we were looking for 16 kids between 11-14 years old interested in building ROBOTS!!

The kids would register freely, we didn’t handpick anyone. As unfortunately there are many sterotypes about technology being a “man thing” we  really put  an extra effort in motivating girs to register. We got  16 kids from different schools in Malmö. We arranged a 4-day workshop with 1Scale1 . There, they learned to program simple robots that reacted to certain stimulations like change of color or surface. They also gave form to these robots with paint and different material. 

In order to inspire children and show them how a “hobby” can become something more,  we invited Nerea de la Riva & Ivan Gallego Bravo from Complubot a spanish organization that works with robotics and children. They are 18 and 16 years old and they have been working many years developing Robots that play football. They won the first place in the Robocup 2010 in Shanghai. 

We also organized a parallel workshop called “Hard becomes soft” which it was open for older people  who wanted to learn to do knitted robots.  The result from both workshops was presented in an exhibition opened under 24 -28 November 2010.

 

 

 

 


Video: Courtesy of David Sjunnesson 1Scale1

PROJECT: HEMMABYGGE - The finest huts

Design by: Caroline Andersson

Design by: Caroline Andersson

Do you remember when you were small and built your own little houses with pillows, cloth, your moms furniture, wood or anything else you could use to create your own little hut… or KOJA like you call it in Swedish.

I went to Gothenburg with my colleague looking for inspiration. I found this gallery that was showing an exhibition about huts: “Come and see what people have built” When I get there I only see small photos on a white wall that people sent showing their huts. I got so disappointed so I thought I would make my own exhibition and invite some people to build their dream hut. 

We called it HEMMABYGGE (homemade). Around 24 artists, carpenters, designers, musicians and interactive designers from Malmo, Gothenburg and Stockholm were working with 10 projects.   They had a few days to design and order the material they would need and they got one week to build their hut. We gave them also a small budget they managed themselves to buy other objects or special stuff that was not in the ordinary building material that we bought. Then the public could vote for their favorite hut, the winner would get a gift card to buy material and tools for future building. People worked day and night and they created really nice stuff, each hut had its own “personality”.

The press coverage was excellent; we had TV and all the important newspapers from Malmo. The Swedish artist Vit Päls performed at the opening. The exhibition was open for a week and there was people constantly visiting in the whole time.

 This project was co-produced with my great friend, creative producer: Caroline Andersson.


PROJECT: Container Library

The Container Library was an amazing project that I really enjoyed working on. The City Library of Malmö was looking to attract more people during the summer, where usually everyone wants to sit outside and enjoy the good weather. They were also looking to attract a younger public. A new skatepark had just opened in town: Stapelbäddsparken. They found this place an excellent arena to try to create an outdoor alternative library to attract the kids that wanted to rest from skating as well as the parents that were there siting waiting for their kids.

So the library of Malmö and the organization of Stapelbäddsparken knew they wanted to create this library in a 12ft old container and they invited me to lead the project creating the whole concept as well as produce it. I literally got an empty container and I had to design everything from opening a door, to electric installation, decoration and program. I work closely with thee library team to decide which books and magazines people was gonna have access to. They were mainly inspired by street and skateboarding culture. We had a whole program of activities for the summer and we even employed teenagers through the summer-work program that the city had, to help us out.

We continued with the projects 3 more summers, we renewed the concept every year, one year we called it Cultural container and it was more focused on kids creating content, we facilitated cameras and computers so they could create their own skate videos, we had video games, all kinds of workshops related with creating, manga, origami, animation and indie aerobics. The concept was later brought to Denmark as well.

PR: The Black Rose Trick

I just landed in Malmö, Sweden and I was looking to get involved in activities that could help me to build a network. I heard through a friend about danish artist Signa Sørensen (now Signa Köstler) who was directing a performance in cooperation with students from the University of Malmö. So I found out about the date and time of next meeting and I attended without knowing a single soul.

During this meeting they explained that the goal of this project was for students to gain experience while working in the performance. I said I wasn’t a student but I was interested in joining and they agreed.

There were different crews that took care of: sound and light design, multimedia, scenography, IT, Direction, Administration and Public Relations. I joined the Swedish PR group. We worked very close with the Danish organization behind the production KanonHallen, and their PR manager back then: Mette Burmeister.

The name of the performance-Installation was THE BLACK ROSE TRICK and consisted in a 10 days non stop performance in a “ strange three-floor hotel, where the audience is invited to explore the many rooms and secrets, while being watched 24 hours a day by 16 cameras.” We got permission to use an abandoned building and we turned it into a hotel from the 50’s. The general public could just come and visit or they could even check-in and spend the night there. The performance was a success!! Every day was sold out and the whole city was talking about it.

The PR group developed a Guerrilla Campaign to promote The Black Rose Trick hotel. This campaign consisted in producing and placing objects that would make us think about a hotel, using intriguing ways to catch the attention of those who found these objects. My team and I not only developed the campaign concept but also produced it with almost no budget. Matchboxes with the logo, old keys with a room nr and a message. This was my first experience working with this kind of campaign and since then I’ve applied it in many of my projects.

The Black Rose Trick, gave me the opportunity to work with professionals involved in the cultural environment from both Malmö and Copenhagen. 

Read more about the project.