Unsworn Telecom headed east to pick up the mighty Megaphonebooth at the metal workshop.

Unsworn Telecom’s latest sublime telephone service is ready for deployment! After intense prototyping sessions in Helsinki and Lisboa we handed over the blueprints to our favourite steel-worker Jörgen Bladh at Kylprodukter i Kivik. A couple of weeks later this solid steel beauty emerged.

The Megaphonebooth is now headed for Finland. You will soon hear more from it…

Thanks Albin Brönmark and Ystads Allehanda for the crisp photos.

For the past three months we’ve had the pleasure of having Lisa Wallin as our intern here at Unsworn HQ.

After miraculously managing to combine the everyday Unsworn chores with studies in Physical Computing, Virtual Reality, and Cognitive Science it is now time for Lisa to focus on her studies full time. We warmly thank Lisa for diligently assisting us with everything from Parascope prototyping to designing the web interface for the Telemegaphone backend.

We had Unsworn muckrakers brush off their Sawatsky-skills to get the intern emeritus to reveal the dirty details of everyday industry life:

UI: How come you chose Unsworn? Is it becuse of the great camraderie, international flair and amazing leadership? The exquisite lunch catering? The clean, well-organised and healthy office environment?

Lisa: Besides all those great things I like the way you explore public space, both in cities and in nature, through communication, curiosity, and playfulness.

What’s a typical day like at UI HQ?

Oh, there is no typical day. As an intern I have been to meetings at the bank, doing cable-sloyd in Kivik and looking for prototype material in the streets. One thing that’s typical though are the morning meetings and the lunches with all kinds of people interested in Unsworn’s work.

On your first day you mentioned that Unsworn personnel are not as hip as the website suggest. Could you take a couple of minutes not to elaborate on that?

Of course it depends of how you define hip. My definition in this situation hip was cool and tough. So I got a little surprised at my first meeting when I meet these nice and caring persons that was Unsworn. Their generosity and kindness is something that has been present throughout the whole internship.

Do you have any advice for future Unsworn interns?

Yes, to do a full time internship for a short I think is ultimate because you then can focus all your energy on the intern work. But also I think it depends on which level you are at and what your goal with the internship is. Think about that first.

Any advice for future Unsworn endeavours?

Keep on going!

You’re doing your second year of the Interaction Design bachelor program at K3, Malmö University and you said you wanted to get a better understanding for what an interaction design practice could be like. So, after three months here, do you still want to do this? Where do you want to go from this?

It has been great doing the internship at Unsworn. I learned a lot about how you can work as an interaction designer and yes, this is really something I want to do in the future. My next goal from here is to find out more about what my role is going to be and what other ways of working there are in this area. And to have fun while I’m doing this.

How much taller than Erik is Magnus?

Hmmm, that’s a tricky one. If I would estimate roughly I would guess about 2 or 3 metres depending on which shoes Magnus has.

I’m in Helsinki talking about Burma with participatory art people at KUVA, and discussing Megaphonebooth practicalities with Pixelache prominents Nathalie and Ulla. Minus 15 degrees and biting Siberian wind make the COP15 heat seem very far away. But, back home in Malmö everyone will soon be biking instead of driving.

Bike and Ride

Lucky for them the City of Malmö is planning a new, fancy bicycle hub, codenamed Bike and Ride, next to the new, fancy Triangeln Syd station for the Copenhagen train. Even better, using two Parascopes at Gustav Adolfs torg in Malmö during COP15 you can check out the Bike and Ride facilities and discuss them with city personnel on site.

New feet

For this occasion, Unsworn Visuals designed and produced new battery-powered Parascopes. The new ones are more comfy to use for people of all heights and compositions. They are also easier and cheaper to deploy with no need for 220V hassles. And also, mainly, they are prepared to be powered by solar panels or small wind generators.

Hats off

Thanks to Kylprodukter i Kivik for magic welding skills and to trusty Terje for invaluable, late-night cable-crafting assistance!