Anna Mikkola, a Berlin designer and friend with a particular interest in books and exhibitions, approached Anni Puolakka and Jenna Sutela of OK Do with an idea of doing a project on the life of publications. As it happened, OK Do was just planning Science Poems, their first book and exhibition, which felt like a natural point of departure for common ventures. So, the three ended up in a discussion about the both. …(more)

Semi-professional design series presents the ancient phenomenon of DIY from a new perspective through digital devices and communication technologies, exploring new social contexts and technical means of making things. The second part of the series maps out semi-professional design practices that have evolved around technologies and platforms, and within communities interacting with systems and each other. …(more)

All people design and think about the future. Some people materialise their ideas through sketching, crafting or customising. More and more people hack their electronics, make things on personal fabrication platforms and share their innovations online. Semi-professional design series aspires to understand the possibilities in this kind of non-institutional design, aiming at material artifacts and operating with digital tools. It is an exploration in free form and multidisciplinary approaches to artifacts straddling the categories of work and leisure, and of production and consumption. …(more)

We met Henrik Moltke, a self-designated openness evangelist and the Danish Creative Commons representative at café Granola in Vesterbro, Copenhagen to talk about online media and creative practices. …(more)

I recently met with Nick Currie aka Momus, a Scottish writer, design journalist and musician who has lived in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo and now Berlin. Exploring his “inner Scotlands” as well as the country’s current efforts towards independence, he just released a book on one hundred and fifty-six Scotlands, which currently do not exist anywhere. …(more)

Martti Kalliala (OK Do, Renaissance Man) and me met with the musicians Samim Winiger and Miguel Toro to talk about the future of music and copyright. Reflecting on Winiger and Toro’s latest project Crashroots, an online platform for collaborative music production and distribution, we covered issues from process to product – from remixing to international music culture. The article starts Remix, a series of writings on sharing and ownership in creative practices. …(more)

I first saw this photograph at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. It is taken by Philip Kwame Apagya, a Ghanaian artist whose work sets a contemporary twist on traditional West African portraiture through painted backdrops that reflect affluent international culture. Here, a man and a woman pose as boss and secretary right beside the Booming Internet (2000) – a reality beyond their means.

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