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MDES 11 - Amsterdam, SenseCamp, and Math

The students from MDES at aSocial Design Studio
The students from MDES at aSocial Design Studio

A great week for the students: our first group trip to Amsterdam for a "Social Business (un)conference" where we met great social designers from abroad!

 

Nothing screams “what a great week ahead” more than starting your Monday with math (insert sarcasm here). The magic of numbers and their statical relations seemed to be a bigger bite than we could chew for such an early session. But we are awesome as usual, and we managed it.

It was interesting to get a glimpse of everyone’s thesis research and discuss our findings from our first survey. Hardcore application.

Later that day I created invitation prototypes for our innovative event on December 14th (save the date!!!) – “What art can do… for social impact?” – My group and I decided to check if these invitations were a valid form of approaching our PCA community. Our “guinea-pigs” were our friends from the MA/MFA Transdisciplinary New Media program.

Tuesday morning we had our 1-2-1 sessions with Sabine It was nice to think about the things we wish to be doing professionally in the future as well as the directions we plan to take on achieving them. Furthermore, it was a check up about our previous learning initiative with MakeSense.

In the afternoon we analysed feedback from many of our prototypes: the invitations, welcome games, etc. We then invited our speakers and exhibitors, deciding on our open call – producing our event and making it happen as soon as possible as well as making it the best experience it can be.

Wednesday was FABLAB day, fabulous! We got to play with the machines and plan our event a bit more. The clock is ticking folks! Oh, and I had, again, this delicious veggie rice from Bob’s Cafe: always worth a visit to my tummy. At night Hanna, Vaila and I tried to watch a movie from the Queer – total FLOP! It was all sold out… In 3 different cinemas… So we ended up at the bar with fancy cocktails because we deserved it! Consolation Prize!

Thursday morning I had my cool Art of Code class, love to create and get crazy with my creations. Thursday afternoon was time for our SCHOOL FIELD TRIP to AMSTERDAM for our first SenseCamp! YAY! It was my first time in Amsterdam and I must say the city was beautiful and full of great vibes. Thursday night I had to separate myself from my class, since I was staying with a friend and they went to a hostel. It was so nice to catch up with a friend that I haven’t seen for some time!

 

Creative Workshop at SenseCamp

Friday we went design studio hopping in Amsterdam. After some pancakes we met with the crew from What Design Can Do and luckily caught them right before their trip to São Paulo for a conference. We then made a stop at the Fashion For Good Organisation exhibition – amazing concept and very exciting proposals for a better and more conscious fashion industry.

 

Visiting What Design Can Do

In the afternoon we took the ferry to Butterfly Works. Afterwards, we went scavenging for the Northern Light (sounds poetic, but it was just a nice restaurant as we were hungry as usual.) Finally it was time to head to SenseCamp!

We recieved our name tags and opened-up about our “superpowers” – Amy: engaging ideas, Hanna: sponge & spark, Myself: making people laugh, Smarti: bad dad jokes, and Vaila: eating. We then had a Forum Theatre which was a participatory theatre format in gender equality to kick-off the weekend activities.

We divided ourselves between different hold-ups, Sense fiction, Sense Bar in the 3 main subjects of the event: Food, Gender Equality and Civic Engagement. In the middle of all of that, we had a party with a Drag show that included a lot of makeup and props. My nails are so beautiful btw.

It was a great week with all the math and the new people/places we got to encounter. Without mentioning the good time on the train as well! Now, we are all busy narrowing down our thesis theme so we can finally present in 3 weeks.

Good luck everyone and don’t forget to save the date (December 14th)!