In the first week, the main objective was to get to know the faculty, our co-students, and the area around IAAC.

To become familiar with the faculty, Guillem talked a lot about MDEF, the FabLab here as well as FabLabs all over the world, and projects of all sorts. Also, we got an overview of all the workshop areas the IAAC has to offer: 3D printing, CNC milling, laser cutting, woodworking, electronics, and robot arms, to name a few.

We were also welcomed with a spontaneous visit by Nadya Peek, who gave a presentation about “Making machines that make,” with a strong emphasis on concepts like open-source frameworks and democratizing access to digital fabrication, to immediately inspire us with awe and creativity.

In order to achieve the second goal, we had to bring some pictures of objects, a community, a background and a “more-than-human” aspect that influenced our live in some way and tell a few stories along those pictures.

Also we went out for some drinks.

Then, for the last objective, we took a leisurely stroll around Poblenou, visiting community workshops, community gardens, and community spaces for art & culture.

I don’t think I have ever seen so much community engagement in a single place.

Later, we extended, digitalized and added more items to our design spaces. A current version of my design space is live at the top of the page.

For me, the design space was probably the most helpful exercise that we have done up to this point. In the beginning it took me a while to understand what it was supposed to look like, so i struggled finding pictures at first, but i am very happy with the result.

Reflection 1

The first weeks at MDEF have already been a diverse, challenging, and perspective-broadening experience in many regards.

First of all, I am thoroughly happy with the people at the whole IAAC faculty. When I decided to come here, I imagined IAAC to be a place where people with open minds, a vision for a better future, and great technical skill come together, and I have not been disappointed. Additionally, my classmates at MDEF are much more than I could have hoped for, and I am excited to see what projects we are going to do together.

The first two weeks of classes at MDEF offered very new ways of thinking about design for me. The design space method helped me visualize, organize, and interconnect different fields of interest within my practice, and I have started to enjoy it as a complementary tool that will be changed and expanded alongside to reflect my own changes and developments throughout my education.

The number of communities and projects connected to IAAC was overwhelming at first, but I am excited to see what opportunities will arise from that during the program.

During these first weeks, we have had many introductory classes on hardware, electronics, and coding. Since this is probably the sub-field of design where I have the most experience, these classes are not too challenging for me, but I still feel like I can learn a lot. I have done some hardware hacking in the past, but never to the extent where I had a whole disused high-tech SLA printer to disassemble and then invent an entirely different functionality for the technical components. This is an awesome opportunity, and I am grateful to be able to participate in classes like these.

In class, we had to craft a quick prototype. We were supposed to take a past project from one of our classmates and then try to make a prototype around that topic.

Bélen had a project where she experimented with a fabric that could generate electricity when it was warm on one side and cold on the other.

In turn, I wanted to experiment with a way to wear this fabric in an unrestrictive fashion so that it could be worn over clothing and on different parts of the body.

Reflection 2

The last two weeks of MDEF felt very intense and a lot more draining than the first two. Maybe that’s just because I was a little sick, and it was hard for me to keep up.

Nevertheless, the design intervention was an interesting thing to do, and I want to see which other questions can be answered in this fashion. I am not entirely sure how scientifically useful I consider the information gathered in this way, but I can’t deny that I like the honesty of answering questions by taking action.

I very much liked the other content we were working with during these last two weeks. The Living with Your Own Ideas workshop was not what I expected, but I think it opened a new field of interest for me that I had not been aware of yet. I consider myself to be an open-minded person, but some of the ideas we were presented with are more profound, speculative, and progressive than anything I have encountered up until this point.

The Companion Species Manifesto, for example, presents a way of thinking about interspecies relations

that is entirely new to me, but it resonates deeply, and I am eager to read some of the book recommendations I received this week.

At first, it was hard for me to engage in the prosthesis we prototyped during the week. In the past, I needed a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve by building a prototype. The different prostheses we built during Living with Your Own Ideas had the goal of building something to experiment with the notion of self, encouraging a shift in one’s own perspective. I quite enjoyed this after I got over my initial difficulties.

Prosthesis 1 - Becoming the best version of ourselves

I would not say I am a very lazy person, but I think few things are as hard for me as leaving the bed in the morning. However much I enjoy my life or not, the cozy warm bed always feels like the better option. Often I think about how much happier, more productive and downright better a person I were, if I could start every day with energy and ease. Hence, my prothesis shall provide that!

It’s a little chip that is injected under the skin. Every morning, like an alarm clock, it will pump an amount of adrenaline into my blood that would wake a gorilla.

Prosthesis 2 - Becoming something non-human

This was difficult at first, I think I have never wanted to be something non-human before. My approach here was to get inspired by the considerable amount of e-waste that occupies most of our classroom. I just started crafting something from scraps I liked and thought about a story as I went.

I ended up with a device that would connect my brain to the consciousness of nature itself. I don’t know what that would mean, but it’s an experience I wouldn’t miss out on.

I imagine that, for a more experienced observer, the conclusion would have been crystal clear. She rolled out the string in a controlled and orderly fashion while talking on the phone during a quiet moment on the roof, with only one other person. Later, in a larger conversation about MDEF topics, she tangled the thread into a messy jumble. She intended the string to represent the way her thoughts varied in different situations, visualizing her mind’s activity during different interactions.

It was hard for me to really empathize with Paula’s actions, as I often felt distracted by things she was doing that were outside my own experience. I didn’t know what she was working on, so I felt like I was missing an important component. I didn’t know whom she was talking to on the phone, or what the conversation was about, so I couldn’t make much sense of it. During her later conversation with our classmates, I felt disconnected in my role as a detective and didn’t want to participate in the conversation.

In conclusion, I realize I still have much to learn about what to focus on when trying to understand someone’s thoughts through observation. Still, I found the experience very insightful, and I think I’d like to incorporate this practice more into my own approach.