Today was a very full day: we visited two different museums, the Hammarby Sjöstad neighborhood and we met with Violeta, a Romanian teacher who works at the Filosofiska where we are going to go in the following days.
The first stop was the Technical Museum in Stockholm, an interactive museum where each of us had the opportunity to explore at our own pace the sections that were recommended to us at the reception: Innovation throughout Sweden’s history, Forests in Sweden and Hyper Human. Each section had classic materials to read, but besides these there were a lot of installations and interactive games meant to reflect the things that in traditional museums you would find out about only from videos, images and texts. For example, in the innovations section entire rooms were set up to show the working conditions in mines, at the one about forests children were invited to climb on structures that mimicked the hilly terrain of Sweden, and at the one about the human body visitors could interact with a program that after the appearance of each person identified their age and emotions. All these were accompanied by audio presentations, educational films and games of attention, concentration, mathematical or creative. Exploring the entire space took a few hours, and leaving from there many of us would have liked to stay longer, because we were completely fascinated by the environment and by the diversity of people that we realized can enjoy that space, from babies to adults of all ages willing to learn in such an interactive environment.
The meeting with Violeta followed, alongside whom we visited the Fotografiska Museum, where we came into contact with a photography exhibition made largely in collaboration with artificial intelligence, a thing that later, during our daily reflection, sparked several discussions and raised questions about ethics and what art itself means. Moreover, we took advantage as much as we could of the time spent alongside Violeta, asking her questions about the education system in Sweden, the lifestyle and the school where she works.
The third stop was at the Hammarby Sjöstad neighborhood, where we split into several groups and tackled a set of missions established by a few of our colleagues. Hammarby Sjöstad is a neighborhood recognized at an international level for its innovative solutions in the field of sustainability, being a corner of Sweden’s capital that was born as a pilot project which aimed to completely transform what had been one of the most polluted places in the city. Our goal today was to observe the reasons for which this place is considered to be one of the most sustainable places in the world, discovering things from the way green spaces are arranged, the time spent in nature encouraged through the architecture of the place, solutions for efficient water collection and care for the surrounding environment and many others. We conducted a series of interviews with the residents, we worked on what will be this year’s photovoice, and we let ourselves be fascinated by what we see.
We ended the day in a circle, reflecting on the multitude of things observed throughout the day, a feeling of admiration for Swedish culture resting in the air between us.