Between 2013 and 2017 I founded and directed an experimental design studio.
The following data is from the archive.
WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE DO, WHAT WE STAND FOR
We are an organization, a network for creative makers, and a design thinking hub.
We mix art and human centered design, we do research and transform places, we design workshops and events.
We develop products, methods and fictions to understand complexity and the world around us.
VISION
We believe the world most pressing problems are complex and need interdisciplinary solutions. We see the need of bringing different people together to think, imagine and work together, learn from each-other and create something bigger than the parts.
We see value in seeing things from different perspectives and use art and design as tools to facilitate that process. Our work is open and experimental and it evolves with different collaborators in various contexts.
We root ourselves in five values.
These help guide our decision-making processes and the direction of Connectors as a unit.
1. We believe in the power of collaboration↴Collaborative commons is the way forward. Everybody has something to offer, and everybody has the capacity to use their skills for the common good.
2. We believe in making the most out of our resources↴Nothing is more frustrating than excessive conferences with outrageous budgets. We like thrifty ideas and the upcycling culture.
3. We act global and think local↴Sure, we’re based in a small city in the south of Sweden, but we’re not limited to Malmö. We’re made up of an international crowd in an uber- international city. Many of us hope to scale our ideas and projects from Malmö all over the globe and work remotely.
4. We believe in the human element↴Solutions for society’s problems need to be based on people. Adopting a human-centered approach means we try our best to be real about what problems we try to tackle and create relevant solutions.
5. We work grassroots↴The bottom-up approach is the most mature form of a democracy, especially when it’s supported hand-in-hand by the public and private sector.
THEMES
URBAN DESIGN
An interdisciplinary, sensorial and human centered approach.
Public space is a complex shared place where different forces act together shaping human behavior. There are visible forces like displays, colors, signs and objects. There are also invisible forces like services, atmospheres and dynamics. Both forces we perceive with different senses, have a strong impact on how places makes us feel and how they make us interact with each other. We do research and create tools to help us understand and control all those those forces that change the way we feel in public spaces.
ART
How to use art to design solutions?
We use art as nonverbal tool to re-imagine reality, to work with our most abstract ideas, to explore new perspectives and to create environments and fictions than can help us think and feel in different ways.
Bringing input from multidisciplinary artists into projects where artists wouldn’t normally be consulted, allow us to explore complexity from different perspectives and experiment with more tools, translating into more creative solutions and stronger innovation processes.
COLLABS
Stpln
The City of Malmö
MKB
STPLN
KPH
City Mart
Sparbanks Skåne
Sten K Johnson Foundation
Digital Bauhaus
European Union
Lund University
Region Skåne
Glokala Fölkhogskolan
INSAM Institute
Dis – Danish Institute
Cititek
Malmö University
Böras Municipality
Disorder Collective
The Bird Factory
Dsruptive
PRESS
“This citizen-driven approach has been given an extra dimension through crowd-sourcing and become an antidote to hardcore modernist planning.”
The Guardian Cities
How to scientifically measure a co-working space to increase productivity Shareable
A glimpse into the future of city halls? The Guardian
Opening the First Crowdsourced Living Room Socia Hong Kong
Together they add color to the streets Sydsvenskan
How to create a space in 5 steps Shareable
One hundred Malmö residents are invited to develop the city 8till5
The World First Crowdsourced Living Room Opens in Sweden Skoll Foundation
How do you develop a square? Sydsvenskan
Community self-determination StandNews Hong Kong
The citizens’ living room Vårt Malmö
What’s “Wasted”? Sydsvenskan
24hrs to make a town Skånska Dagbladet