Workshops
During the past years I devoted part of my time to host, run and volunteer on workshops that aimed to improve the way we perceive and interact with technology. Here's a list with some of the most meaningful and fun episodes:
2020-03: TATE Exchange: Power Play
Invited by London CLC to host a Strawbees workshop station at TATE Exchange to explore the theme of Power and Play.
2019-04: Kids Hack Day London
2019 I had the pleasure to co-organize the first and second Kids Hack Day in London. They were two beautiful and inspiring days with children, parents, volunteers and passing by curious having a good time being curious and building things.
2018-04: Kano: Build your computer and code
After the last workshop, my friend Taylor and I gave at Poplar Union we decided to explore more specifically the Kano range of products since they weren’t as performant as expected on a building scenario. These new workshops would focus on how to present the app Make Art (that comes on the KanoOS) in a way we could introduce a more complex language.
2018-02: Bits and Atoms: Vefskoli
My great friend Pedro Netto teaches web technologies at Vefskoli in Reykjavik. He invited me to give a 3 day lecture about how his students could extend their web knowledge beyond the browser into the physical world. We sold the workshop as Internet of Things although I do prefer to call it “A journey from atoms to bits and back again” or just “bits and atoms” for short.
2017-11: Strawbees: Fun with motors
In early February, my friend 2018 Taylor and I decided to give a few workshops called "Fun with motors". We came up with this idea after a series of small activities we have done together to brainstorm about how could we explore motors, building, GPIOs and Kano products together. We thought this was a way to expand the possibilities for schools and homes who have Kano Computers and are done with the content that comes on it already.
2017-04: Kano: Code Dojo Girls Only
During the first month after, I joined Kano I hosted a table at Code Dojo Girls Only edition. During the event, there were stations covering all sorts of content, like scratch, game development, robotics, python programming, etc. I was in charge of a “make your own computer” workshop with computer kits from Kano.
2016-10: Fast Prototyping: O Parque October 2016
While I was back home in Brazil for a while I did a one month residency at O Parque, a creative hub, coworking space and studio. There, I interacted with many creative professionals from street artists to local brands on a daily basis, experimenting and understanding how people would see and interact with the tools and approach to technology I was proposing.
2016-09: Quirkbot Robot Race: Stockholm Chamber of Commerce September 2016
Stockholm Chamber of Commerce donated Quirkbot kits to a list of schools in Sweden and as part of the delivery we would give a series of workshops with members from the organization, educators and students. It was interesting to notice that the most successful activity - that managed to engage people across all the very different groups - was the robot race.
2016-08: Fast Prototyping: Berghs August 2016
Joe Coppard invited my friend Paulo Barcelos and me to give a lecture about techniques and tools for rapid prototyping to another class at Berghs School of Communication. This time we updated the content and tools to focus even more on how to integrate and hack new technologies introduced into students creative workflow.
2016-03: Kids Hack Day: KHD For Adults March and April 2016
After we hosted Kids Hack Day Hyper Island a lot of people came to us to ask about Kids Hack Day Club and other events. We noticed a lot of parents, educators and curious grown ups asking about event they could attend as well. Since Kids Hack Day was mainly focused on the younger ones, we decide to create a special event, more adult-oriented.
2016-03: Kids Hack Day: Hyper Island March 2016
After Hyper Island bought Quirkbot kits for prototyping and development of projects, students organized a Kids Hack Day with it. I joined the event with my friend Carl Bärstad as volunteer and consultant both training the students and helping to design the space.
2015-11: Strawbees: ItLab November 2015
While working at Designit in Stockholm I was invited to be a mentor on a design bootcamp in Munich. The participants were interns from different Designit offices across the globe and the theme was “how can strategic design help the current refugee crisis”. My contribution as a mentor was to push the projects beyond the sticky notes and whiteboards, to actual prototypes and validation of their ideas through experiencing how people react to them.
2015-09: Strawbees: Makers Faire NY September 2015
During the days I joined the 2015 Maker Faire as part of the Strawbees gang, we set a booth next to the gift shop and had a lot of fun, apart from business and marketing related activities.
2015-09: Fast Prototyping: Bergs September 2015
Yet again my friend Paulo Barcelos and I got invited to lecture at Berghs School of Communication for a mixed of students from different courses about the process and techniques to bring ideas to reality through fast and constant prototyping.
2015-05: Strawbees: Paide May 2015
I was invited through Makerspark and Pixelache to give a Strawbees workshop at Paide, in Estonia during a gathering to advertise a residency program on the city’s community center. When I got there I was amazed by the strength of the ideas people were articulating around there.
2015-03: Quirkbot Robot Race: FabLab@School March 2015
I went to Vejle to join a national conference of schools who had or wanted to have a FabLab at their schools. We ran a workshop with a classic Quirkbot activity: build a moving creature with Strawbees and a pre-programmed Quirkbot in 20 to 30 minutes. After the creatures were built, we suggested a few competitions like races or battles, so participants could interact with each other's creations.
2015-01: Kids Hack Day: Club (2015 - 2016)
Following the success of 2014’s Summer Camp, we decided to go further and establish a Kids Hack Day Club that ran initially from Makerspark's basement, then moved to a few rooms at Stadsgården and finally to Stockholm Makerspace, in 2016.
2014-10: Fast Prototyping: Berghs September 2014
As everybody enjoyed the spring lectures, Paulo got invited again to give the same lecture and extended the invitation to me. I was more than happy to join again and the idea was very similar: Give a class of Copywriting students a crash course on rapid prototyping.
2014-06: Kids Hack Day: Summer Camp June 2014
During early days of Kids Hack Day, the main format was “one day events”. As people kept asking for more and more about next events and the subscription list increased, I was invited to join the new format Kids Hack Day was trying out: Summer Camp.
2014-05: Fast Prototyping: Berghs May 2014
The first time I got invited to give a lecture was by Paulo and Joe at Berghs. The idea was to get a class of Digital Art Direction and give a crash course on how to go from idea to prototype in a couple of days.