Week 1

MDEF is off to a flying start! We met our super cool and enthusiastic teachers, and you could just tell they’re honestly passionate about what they do. They really want to help us students shine and do our best. I can’t wait to learn all they have to share in the coming year.

Also, meeting my new colleagues has begun, and this part might just be what excites me most about the master's program. Imagine being with people from all corners of the world, each bringing their own unique stories and views, all wanting to make the world a better place. The mix of an exciting curriculum, awesome colleagues, and supportive staff has really ramped up my excitement for the year ahead.

Wednesday kicked off with insightful discussions led by Guillem and Tomas. Guillem guided us through the heart of MDEF, detailing the processes, tools, workshops, and maker spaces we'll be utilizing in Barcelona. On the other hand, Tomas shared a glimpse into his work in Bali, Indonesia—enticingly, a potential spot for MDEF’s research in the upcoming year.

In the second half of the day we explored Poblenou's ecosystem of partner's facilities that included:

• La Plataforma (Intimate showroom offering rotating exhibitions of modern paintings & sculptures, plus events.)
• TransfoLAB BCN ( A centre dedicated to the creative ecosystem in Barcelona focused on design, innovation, production and experimentation with waste, circular economy and environmental sustainability.)
• BiciHub (An incubator center for ideas, projects and alliances, aimed at the implementation of sustainable bicycle mobility through the cooperative model and the social fabric).
• Bioma (A multispace for you where you will find a beautiful allotment where you can participate, bio-construction rooms and a lot of activities in a natural and sustainable setting: yoga, meditation , workshops, permaculture, bio-construction and many more activities)
  

If the adventures thus far didn't sound whirlwind enough, brace yourselves, because the following day managed to up the ante even further! Our day began with an immersion into the crucial art of documenting each minuscule step of the design process. Pablo, illuminated the indispensable nature of maintaining these records. A confession is in order: throughout most of my career, I've been something of a cowboy-designer, forging ahead and getting things done without a care for documenting the journey. However, today heralded a change in that cowboy’s ride.

Next up was an enlightening lecture on Git, delivered by the awesome Josep. For those unacquainted, Git is a distributed version control system, diligently tracking changes in any set of computer files and predominantly utilized for coordinating work among programmers during collaborative source code development in software projects. Git, it appears, will be our meticulous keeper of project life stories as we journey forth, becoming a true ally in our documentation endeavors.

Our day culminated not with noses buried in computer monitors, but with hands engaged in tangible creation. We descended to the workshop to collaboratively build a worktable for the class. Together as a team, we assembled, rearranged, and set the stage, quite literally, for the spectacular happenings destined to unfold within those walls.

The week wrapped up with a tour of the awe-inspiring Elisava campus, which honestly looks like it was plucked straight out of Silicon Valley. It's a spectacular place, brimming with a fusion of cutting-edge technologies and traditional design tools, offering everything from a motion capture room and workshops to a recording booth and photography studio. If it exists in the realm of design and technology, Elisava has it.

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The tour transitioned into a lecture from MDEF co-director Laura Benitez, whose intellectual stimulation is second to none. I'm genuinely looking forward to more of her lectures, where we will dive deeper into exploring the philosophical aspects of our work.

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