I owe you guys a Project 366: October, but first wanted to share a little trip I took. I went to Stockholm for four days to speak on an APG Sweden panel, and run two all-day workshops with Jonas. It was an insane whirlwind of a trip, and, bookended by the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, made my first time in Scandinavia's dreaminess even more pronounced.
I was on one of the handful of people flying out of Newark, the day it re-opened after the hurricane. It was a total ghost town.
I took an overnight, direct flight and landed in Stockholm at 6AM. It was still dark out, and I got to see the sun rise through an express train ride into the city. I was greeted by a very familiar view, and a cheeky welcome card on my bed.
The rest of the trip was a bit of a blur, but included delightful things like walking over bridges, hearing a bit of Stockholm history, speaking on a panel, eating delicious food, teaching two very insightful and intensely curious classes of students (one at Hyper Island, and one at Berghs School of Communication), meeting up on very short notice with Jordan (former colleague and recent Stockholm resident), and getting caught up in many costumed crowds in spillover Halloween parties (one of them being a Clockwork Orange themed event in my hotel, full of guests in all white, suspenders and eye makeup).
My favorite part of Stockholm was the neighborhood around the Telefonplan train station. I was exhausted on this morning, and listening to music with clicks and glitchiness. The landscape, lines, buildings, sky and general feel were the most unfamiliar to me - more industrial than the main part of Stockholm, but with a clean and angular touch that felt like Proem or Efterklang tracks.
Jonas told me that a large group of building we walked around were all part of the original Ericsson campus, but that it was slowly converting into a design district of sorts - design studios, galleries, and even Hyper Island all live there.
A huge thanks to Mike for linking Jonas and I up for this, and to Jonas for being a fantastic host and colleague for this project - I hope it can happen again.
