so what now?

I have now finished my kaospilot cycle… handed in the report, passed the final exam, survived my tiredness and my body simply not responding as it used to, the morning sickness and throwing up from time to time and the difficulties of transporting my ever growing belly… It was not exactly the project I am most proud of in my life, I am still asking myself… what the hell was the project about? hehe, but that is not too relevant now… now the stress is over, now is time for reflection and learning, for inspiration, for thinking about the future and for giving birth to the sea horse.

We lost the pregnancy journal thing… the paper where the doctors and midwifes write how my pregnancy has developed and the results of the exams and all that stuff… we can’t find them… have looked all over here at home, and it is nowhere to be found… smart! We can’t find a name for the baby either… so it seems there are many things we can’t find these days…

Rowan came up with some theory that says that children are souls that choose their parents they want to be born of. Dear son or daughter… WHAT WERE YOU THINKING OF?

It is a very strange feeling now, a feeling of emptiness and uncertainty… well, I suppose the feeling is not strange, maybe it is a very familiar feeling, it is certainly not the first time in my life when I complete some kind of cycle and look outside the window and ask myself WHAT NOW? What is it I am going to do now? will we stay in Denmark? Am I going to do the masters in Copenhaguen at CIID? There is this job possibility in Preston England, will I take the job if the offer it to me? What do I need to do to go to Colombia for some time? What is the best place for the seahorse to grow up? what is it I want to do? what do I want to learn more of? what would be the job of my dreams? what is the project of my dreams? who do I want to work with?

Staying in Denmark seems a bit complicated and it gives me the “repeluz” with all the visa madness and immigration rules… Rowan needs to be a normal person and have money and a 9 to 5 job to apply for my residency, and I need to have a proper job to do it myslef… and even then it is something between 3 and 7 years before I can get the residency permit… But I suppose it would be very similar anyway we go. As soon as we start researching we would find out that it is not as simple as we thought and that every place has its complications… so what are the most interesting complications I want to go through?

Bees are dying in Europe I heard in the radio this morning. There are 3 big bees in my window here, trying to get out… the window can’t be open, so it is not exactly the right place to get out, but they keep banging their heads against the glass again and again, bzzzzz plunk…. bzzzzzzzz plunk….. bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz plunk…..bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz plunk!

Maybe someone, or even the bees, when looking at me would say something similar. Why don’t you just fly to the door next to the window which is actually open and you can then fly outside of this room.

So where is the door? am I banging my head on a glass?

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design + social innovation …. looking for project partners

Dear _____
As I know you are people working with the challenges of design education I have decided to approach you with a project proposal that I think might catch your interest.

I am in my last year at the Kaospilot, a creative business school with a lot of enfasis in social entrepreneurship. After a fantastic 3 yr ride I am working on my final (or as I see it “begining”) project.

With a background in Design, Education and Technology (visit www.pataleta.net to see more about me); the places I have been to, the people I have worked with, the realities I have tried to understand and learn from. I find myself with a great interest in investigating the intersection between social innovation and design.

On the one hand I see the design profession having developed an important practical approach in relation to prototype development, dealing with alternatives, solution finding, sense making etc. And these are portrait a relevant way of thinking when talking about social change.

This leads me to think that the design profession can play a very prominent role in the building of our future. However, when I look at what design education is based on (and I might be outdated, but this is my perception) I see that it is mainly geared towards answering the needs of an industrial society: Design products or services, promote consumption… but what is the future of design when not working towards an industrial society? What does design do in a knowledge society? What is the responsibility of design in the building of a better world? And from this question, the one that I really feel passion for:
Can we, or should we change something in design education to promote the intersection between design and social innovation?

I am looking for project partners, people that could be interested in the same topics, and that would like to play a role in this project.

My plan is to engage in an open research adventure, I have an overview of interesting things going on in the world in this regards, but I would like to deepen and gather that knowledge. The idea is to create a simple online platform for publishing interviews in the form of vod/podcasts. I want to interview people working with these topics, hear their challenges, their best practices, their motivation, their dreams, their burning questions, their inspiration… and with this information develop a an educational module, to be tested of as a pilot with a group of design students.

The time frame for the project up to the pilot is from now until the end of april.

Are you, or do you know anybody who could be interested in playing and working with meon this project?
Send me your comments, your questions, concerns and smiles, that takes me one step further in the process.

Download a short presentation of the idea.

Thank you.

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Trabajo final idea 2.

A raiz de las cosas que he estudiado, los sitios en los que he trabajado, las charlas inspiradoras que he tenido, los sitios que he visitado y las realidades que he tratado de entender y de las cuales he tratado de aprender, tengo un gran interes en investigar la intersección entre el diseño y la innovación social. Por un lado considero el ejercicio del diseño cómo una profesion de la cual se puede aprender mucho con respecto a desarrollar prototipos, presentar alternativas, encontrar soluciones a problemas y eso considero que es una manera de pensar muy relevante cuando se esta hablando de cambio social.

Esto me lleva a pensar que el la profesión del diseño puede jugar un papel muy importante en la construcción del futuro. Sin embargo, si miro en que está basada la educación del diseño, veo que en gran medida esta pensada para responder a las necesidades de una sociedad industrial, diseñar productos, promover consumo… pero entonces cual es el futuro del diseño al no funcionar en pro de una sociedad industrial? que hace el diseño en una sociedad del conocimiento? cual es la responsabilidad del diseño en la construcción de un mundo mejor? Y a partir de esta pregunta, una aun más importante, se puede o se debe cambiar algo en la educación del diseño que promueva la interesección entre el diseño y la innovación social?

Inicialmente lo que quiero hacer es mirar que esta sucediendo en el mundo con respecto a esto, tal vez hacer entrevistas, recolectar información, inspiración, hacer una investigación abierta a manera de blogs y con entrevistas en video que muestren reflexiones de gente interesada en este tema. Y posteriormente, si logro encarretar a alguna escuela de diseño en el cuento, desarrollar un taller piloto con miras a crear tal vez un modulo, o un posgrado, o un curso, o alguna manera de integrar esta opción en la educación del diseño.

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creative leadership workshops (in cross-cultural settings)

This is one of the possible ideas for my kaospilot final project. What I am thinking of is developing what we started in Cuba, try it out in Colombia(and perhaps in the future extend it to Latin America). A way to plant seeds and promote social entrepreneurship in Colombia.

Some people have been talking about the possibility of starting a kaospilot school in Colombia, or in Latin America, I kind of think that it is perhaps too early for that, and that if open rigtht now, such a school would be mainly targeted to young privileged people, people who have the economic means to try out this kind of education, I think this might not be the right approach for the social needs of Colombia.

Before actually starting a school, I would like to develop a program of short courses, a more flexible way of working with the same kind of issues as the kaospilos school works with that would allow the program to reach more people from a wider social spectrum. That would empower and inspire those that need it the most, and that is not dependant on a big infrastructure in order to survive.

I would like to work with young people who would not otherwise have the opportunity to access further education, and in whom I see a great potential for making a possitive contribution to their communities.

My idea is be to design and carry out two week workshops with groups of no more than 15 people in a very hands on approach training skills such as team work, communication, proactive planning, personal leadership, creative project management, problem solving, techniques for idea development and prototyping and the use of invormation and communication technologies.

Ideally the participants will come to the course with an existing project that they are working on or are interested in, and that would like to develop, the projects should have a social perspective, intending to generate a reflection about a social issue and a possitive impact in their communities.

An important perspective of the course is to work in a perspective of co-creation. It is not about taking the european or first world way of thinking and impossing it onto other people, it is not about comming with solutions or recipies, that has been tried many times before, and has been proven unsuccessful more than enough times. What I think is interesting is the perspective of empowering people to find their own solutions, to take responsibility for their lives, to be part of making a better future for themselves, to learn to free themselves from the self-image of being victims.

This is also an invaluable opportunity for me to learn. Working with motivated people and having the privilege of sharing their dreams is perhaps one of the most amazing gifts life can give one. I don’t see it as a transfer of tools, as me filling empty buckets with information, I see it as an oportunity for all the participants including me to engage in a learning adventure together. More than answers I am interested in people getting better at asking questions, at being curious, at trying new things, at thinking of the common and not only on their own personal gain, I am interested in people exploring their natural abilities for learning, for knowing themselves, for inspiring others.

And inspiration is a very important aspects, one of my objectives is that after the course some of the participants would be involved in designing a new course, and would be part of facilitaing. It is very important that the project is not dependant on me, I would like to see myself as the one planting seeds, and that seeds will fly and start new crops in other parts with other groups. I would like to see this project growing organically not industrially, and certainly not dependant on bureaucratic
The vision I have with this workshops is that they can be carried out in different parts of the country (I love travelling my beautiful contry, so that is not a bad thing) and that they should be accompanied by an online community platform where the participants can post information on themselves, the course and the projects they are working on, using text, pictures, video and sound. The intention with this is in different areas:

• Extend the time and geographical reach of the workshops
• Familiarize participants with the use of new media and information and communication technologies
• Inspire others
• Promote cross polination of projects and hopefully in the future see how collaboration emerges among participants throughout the country

I am right now looking for partners and people that could be interested in trying this out, I have made this website

liderazgo creativo

Let’s see what happens…

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What is the best proffesional perspective for a design graduate in Colombia?

Is Design in Colombia in any way supporting social innovation? Can it do it? Should it do it?

Many of the people I know who have graduated as designers and have “a good job” are the ones that are working for international companies that even when paying them more than they will otherwise earn if they worked for a Colombian company, they are still saving loads of mony by employing cheap labor.

Universities and design schools in Europe and USA are shifting paradigm and thinking on how to prepare students for moving away from the fields of industrial mass-markets for consumer goods, and instead focusing on things like innovation, business transformation, strategy development, leadership, how to work in cross-disciplinary groups, how to deal with environmental challenges, how to optimize production processes for things that will be outsourced to developing countries… preparing their students for the challenges their societies are, or will be facing in the future.

What are our universities and design schools preparing us for?

If one of the best options as a design graduate is to work for an international company. Are we then being trained to work for executing solutions to challenges other societies are facing? If this is the case, why is our training so detached from the needs of our own society?

My proposal is that project based, cross-disciplinary training should be an option (if not a must) in design education in Colombia, with focus on sustainability and social innovation. A hands-on approach involving students from different disciplines and the industry, whose main purpose is to address real challenges of our society.

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