Follow the Estonia question: how do people gain the confidence, tools and community to create—and how does that make society more resilient?
My recommendation: secure one exceptional host before choosing the extra day. David Cuartielles is the strongest individual across your interests; Fryshuset is the strongest youth/culture/beredskap organisation; Media Evolution and IAC are the strongest routes into creative collaboration. If both days work, Thursday 22 October now has the strongest cultural programme: the K3 art/technology talk, sound art or contemporary art, and either Bulgarian Voices Angelite + NOSTRA or Beethoven’s Fifth with a symphonic world premiere. Tuesday 20 October is stronger for inclusive preparedness and a live youth setting.
Working date: Wednesday 21 October, SABN02 Psykologiskt försvar. The possible extra days are Tuesday 20 or Thursday 22 October; confirm these with the final travel arrangements. Confirm the teaching venue/campus too: Lund University also operates in Malmö and Helsingborg. Listed meetings are suggestions, not appointments; public-event information is checked against current official sources.
32 people & places2 possible days1 good conversation can shape the trip
New · Concerts, theatre & exhibitions
Give the extra day an evening.
Thursday 22: Bulgarian Voices Angelite + NOSTRA at S:t Johannes kyrka, or Beethoven’s Fifth and the premiere of Anders Nilsson’s Fifth Symphony at Malmö Live. Wednesday 21: Bill Stewart Trio, or free literature with Steinar Opstad at Inkonst.
During the day: Skissernas’ artistic process, Moderna’s sound art, Otobong Nkanga at Malmö Konsthall, and Kulturen’s cultural history. Tuesday has Familjen’s creative-process lunch; Thursday has the LOVE Malmö skateboard-square talk.
This guide connects the Estonia study-visit preparation and published Mjøsvasen conversations to current people, projects and places around Lund and Malmö. Its shortlist spans youth and making, art and culture, learning and startups, and preparedness.
The richest connection is already personal: in Paide you met Jana Wrange after the resilience discussion. Lage told her about Demokrati under press and the new civil-preparedness theatre work; she invited follow-up about the university programme. Her current university profile confirms civil defence research and affiliation with LUPREP. Use this existing relationship to ask for one or two introductions; a general cold request to the university would waste that context. Current profile.
The podcast framing joins technology and learning, creativity and preparedness, art and democracy. Your first question to Linnar Viik concerned art; he treated it as a place to investigate technology and creativity. The trip also made room for music, shared cultural references, a spontaneous jam, public dialogue and the institutions that let people try things. Those are the selection criteria here.
Estonia thread
Useful continuation here
AI-klubb1; from consumers to creators; VIVITA as a researched model
David/IOIO, Fryshuset, LT21, Arena 305, KRUT. See projects and ask who really makes decisions.
Art as a testing ground for technology; co-creation and production access
IAC, STPLN, Susan Kozel, Hillgren, Above. Seek unfinished work and artist–technologist conversations.
AI Leap, cognitive effort, teaching and assessment
Agneta Gulz, Gärdenfors, robotics lab. Bring Spørrespeilet and ask what would count as learning.
Culture, national memory and preparedness; theatre and Refling Hagen
Libraries/preparedness, Dawit Isaak Library, Björn Lundberg, Max Liljefors.
Arvamusfestival, dialogue circles, civic technology and youth agenda-setting
Karin Karlsson/Malmö Möts, Fryshuset, Hillgren; Demokrati Garage only for a dedicated detour.
Telliskivi, creative quarters and enabling institutions
NGBG’s protected Kulturljudzon, STPLN, Media Evolution, Trans Europe Halles.
Libraries lend capacities; tools, instruments and making
Garaget + Arena 305, then KRUT. Ask about skills and community as well as equipment.
Digital governance, entrepreneurs, public value and open cultural access
Larsson, Pille, Media Evolution, a curated Minc founder lunch, Finch.
Keep the personal history accurate: Linnar Viik, Harno, e-Estonia and the festival contacts are evidenced encounters. Jaan Aru, Kairit Tammets, Ragnar Siil, Citizen OS and VIVITA were research/outreach candidates; the sources reviewed do not establish meetings with them. The later education research also complicates the early teacher-autonomy explanation. Use the Estonia experience as an invitation to compare, not as a settled model Sweden should copy.
Before or after?
Tuesday 20 October: people, youth and preparedness
Best when: Lage’s culture/beredskap work and practical youth participation lead the day.
Morning: one booked Malmö meeting—David, Karin Karlsson, STPLN or Media Evolution. Choose one, not a circuit.
13–16:Krisberedskap för alla? at Malmö City Library. The professional afternoon is open without registration. Meet Lisa/Linda in the context of their work.
After 16: one arranged youth setting: Fryshuset, or Garaget + Arena 305. Preserve time to see people working and talk informally.
For an optional theatre evening, Prima Facie plays at Intiman at 19:00. A daytime piano alternative is Eskil Roos at Palladium, 12:15–13:00, but it is too tight before the library conference.
A Lund alternative: cognition coffee → Familjen creative-process lunch at Skissernas → X-Lab → LT21’s Tuesday studio. This is a different route; it will not also fit the full Malmö conference.
Thursday 22 October: art and technology
Best when: creative collaboration, making and thought-provoking art/technology encounters lead the day.
Morning: book David/IOIO, IAC or STPLN. If the practical host is IAC, leave travel time to Niagara.
13–15: K3 FUTURES talk with Linda Hilfling Ritasdatter and Kristoffer Gansing. Invite Pille, Hillgren, David or another local colleague for coffee afterwards.
Late afternoon: stay in Malmö for one exhibition or the LOVE Malmö skateboard-square talk, 17–18. These are alternatives; do not fit every museum into the day.
Evening: choose Bulgarian Voices Angelite + NOSTRA at S:t Johannes kyrka, 19:30, or Malmö Live’s Beethoven/Nilsson concert, 19:00. The 18:00 concert introduction conflicts with the end of LOVE Malmö.
The concerts need a late return or overnight stay. For a quieter Lund evening, replace the Malmö afternoon/evening with Skissernas’ 17:30 curator tour (or simultaneous FN och konsten tour); it does not fit before a 19:00 Malmö concert. If returning early, keep the day entirely in Malmö. A Media Evolution gathering can replace an event or museum; it is not an extra fourth meeting.
Plan a full day around two substantive encounters plus one cultural visit. Malmö’s university/harbour cluster suits David, K3, Media Evolution, Minc and STPLN; Bergsgatan/Triangeln suits IAC/Inkonst; Sofielund/Folkets Park suits Fryshuset, Garaget/Arena and NGBG. Hyllie is a separate convenient rail stop. These are geographical planning clusters, not verified door-to-door itineraries. Check the actual campus and train times before fixing appointments.
Skissernas, Lund. SEK 125 including vegetarian lunch; limited lunches, pre-purchase at museum guarantees lunch. Particularly good for Lage. Does not fit a 13:00 Malmö conference start.
Malmö City Library, no afternoon registration. Morning 10–12 is targeted to people with cognitive disabilities/LSS and has a passed deadline; do not assume morning attendance.
K3 Studio, Niagara, Malmö. Art/software/infrastructure and non-extractive alternatives. Contact Tina Askanius, tina.askanius@mau.se. Starts 13:00 sharp. Specific calendar and Swedish overview establish autumn 2026; English overview has an inconsistent 2027 heading.
Excellent cognition/AI/polarisation line-up, but outside the one-day-before/after choice. Only relevant if the travel scope expands. Tuesday internal NAC meetings may affect researchers’ morning availability.
32 people and places worth considering
Ranks 1–12 are the first-choice pool; 13–32 widen the possibilities. Ranking expresses fit for your trip, not institutional importance. Contact details are public professional routes. Filter by interest or search names and terms.
32 candidates
1 · Malmö
David Cuartielles · IOIO
Making, Youth, Learning, Art, Preparedness
Arduino co-founder and founder of Malmö University’s IOIO prototyping lab. His work connects interactive art, education toolkits, visual programming and embedded technology; the current profile also lists EvacAware. My strongest individual recommendation because he crosses almost the entire Estonia agenda.
Conversation: Ask to see two working projects and discuss how AI-klubb1 could progress from screen-based output to physical, interactive making. How do adults help a self-directed project without taking it over?
Route: david.cuartielles@mau.se · appointment; request a 60–90-minute conversation and lab visit. School-class tours are advertised, but a visit for you two needs agreement.
Current Malmö head. The Folkets Park hub combines a youth-run café, music studio and stage with youth participation. Vi Behövs! offers practical preparedness training for ages 16–24. This is an especially close fit for Lage’s culture, youth and beredskap combination.
Conversation: How does making music, running an event or café, and learning crisis skills build the confidence to contribute locally? What reaches young people who distrust public institutions?
Route: jenny.berg-nilson@fryshuset.se · Norra Parkgatan 2A. Listed Tuesday/Thursday youth activities 15–21; arrange a professional visit.
Reeta Hafner / Martin Thörnkvist · Media Evolution
Art, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Learning
Creative community with a current Human Collaboration and AI foresight cycle, September 2026–January 2027; earlier cycles include sound/song, learning and creative expression. Reeta is the foresight contact; Martin is COO/programming. Strong connector to practitioners across your interests.
Conversation: Request a small exchange with a creative practitioner and technologist. How do shared future conversations become working prototypes? What would someone embedded in a creative community help its members build?
Route: reeta@mediaevolution.se / martin@mediaevolution.se · Stora Varvsgatan 6a; weekday front desk 08–17. A hosted gathering needs agreement.
Current creative hub and cultural incubator, connecting informal learning, art, podcasts, film and technology. A September 2026 workshop combined Arduino and AI in interactive art. Enes leads The Lab; Sanna is managing director. Excellent for the social infrastructure of experimentation.
Conversation: What lets someone try an odd creative idea before it becomes a business or a finished artwork? Ask to meet one current creator, and discuss the adult support and technical help that are actually missing.
Route: enes@stpln.se / sanna@stpln.se · Malmöhusvägen 5. Study visits offered; curated visits may have a fee. The old machine makerspace is archived, not verified at this address.
IAC director. Lund University’s artistic research infrastructure in Malmö offers cross-disciplinary spaces and technical support. Current projects include new musical instruments and an augmented organ-vibraphone. Particularly good for seeing art and engineering being developed together.
Conversation: Ask for one studio visit with an artist wrestling with an unfinished technical problem. What can be discovered by improvising and prototyping together, before anyone can write a specification?
Route: hedvig.jalhed@mhm.lu.se / info@iac.lu.se · Bergsgatan 29. Appointment required; the advertised 15 October sessions are outside your probable dates.
Professor with a direct Estonia bridge: formerly at Tartu, connected to the Estonian National Museum. Her work joins digital citizenship, participation, libraries and museums. Current Data Conversations project, 2025–2027, explores AI-enhanced cultural impact with an Estonian museum partner.
Conversation: What did you see in Estonia that Sweden could interpret differently? How can a cultural institution assess participation and public value without reducing everything to engagement metrics? A promising podcast conversation.
Route: pille.pruulmann.vengerfeldt@mau.se · K3; request coffee or a joint conversation with another researcher.
Lisa Engström / Linda Stjernholm · Libraries and preparedness
Libraries, Preparedness, Democracy, Learning
Lisa researches libraries and democratic participation; Linda works on inclusive preparedness at LTH/Certec. Their 20 October Malmö conference examines crisis conversations with people with intellectual disabilities, and libraries’ role in preparedness. A direct continuation of the Estonia culture/defence questions.
Conversation: When preparedness becomes an individual obligation, who is left out? How can libraries make it collective, accessible and grounded in everyday trust? The professional afternoon provides a live example.
Route: lisa.engstrom@kultur.lu.se · conference Tue 20 October 13–16 at Malmö Stadsbiblioteket, no registration required for afternoon.
Project leader for the first Malmö Möts democracy week, 12–18 June 2026, combining public discussion, culture, humour, live podcasts and youth. The closest local counterpart to Arvamusfestival; her background also includes Malmö Live and Eurovision organisation.
Conversation: What actually makes a democracy festival welcoming to people who would never attend a political seminar? What did its organisers learn, and what continues through the year? Strong podcast subject for Lage.
Route: malmomots@malmo.se · request the organiser, 45–60 minutes. June festival is over; no October festival is implied.
Cognitive science professor whose educational-agent research includes children learning by teaching a digital companion. Her upcoming cognition conference presentation is critical of pupils outsourcing thinking to GenAI. A useful countervoice to AI Leap, tied directly to Spørrespeilet.
Conversation: Show Oppgaveautomaten and Spørrespeilet. What would demonstrate that they increase perseverance, reasoning and later unaided performance? How should a voluntary club differ from school?
Route: agneta.gulz@lucs.lu.se · LUX, Helgonavägen 3; appointment. Tuesday morning may clash with an internal cognition meeting.
Two complementary public capacities at Lönngatan 30: Garaget lends tools and musical equipment and offers study visits; Arena 305 supplies rehearsal, recording, film, dance and podcast facilities for ages 15–25. The clearest local counterpart to the Estonia library-of-things and creator agenda.
Conversation: Ask how confidence, peer learning and access work after equipment is supplied. At Arena, see young people’s work and ask what adults do when a project becomes ambitious or messy.
Route: garaget@malmo.se / arena305@malmo.se. Garaget current named contact: Anna Langefors Bräutigam, anna.brautigam@malmo.se. Arena weekdays 15–22; arrange visits, do not assume adult access to youth sessions.
Central Lund youth hub for mainly ages 16–25, supporting self-directed projects, associations, entrepreneurship, production and youth influence. Its own framing says young people know what they want to do and adults coach them. A smaller, practical candidate worth taking seriously.
Conversation: How much agenda-setting power do young people really have? Can someone bring an unusual project, recruit collaborators and change what the house provides? A possible exchange partner for AI-klubb1.
Historian of childhood, scouting, citizenship and knowledge. Newly started Children’s Rights and Participation in Swedish Civil Preparedness (August 2026–August 2029), alongside Barn i beredskap. Especially relevant to your teaching day and youth club.
Conversation: How can young people be active contributors to preparedness without childhood being organised around fear? What distinguishes rights and participation from simply mobilising the young?
Route: bjorn.lundberg@hist.lu.se · request a Lund campus coffee, potentially adjacent to the teaching day.
Interaction-design professor with fine-arts background, initiator of Malmö Living Labs, working across civic organisations, public institutions and cultural practice. His profile includes The Forbidden Music.
Conversation: How do you stay with an organisation’s half-formed need until you discover what is worth building? An excellent thinking partner on participatory prototyping; could join Pille or David in one meeting.
Professor connecting dance, philosophy, responsive technology and somatic archives, with 2026 work on AI-inflected immersive dance.
Conversation: What does an artist discover when a technologist can improvise alongside them? What should be sensed, remembered or left unrecorded? Stronger if connected to an actual experiment.
Malmö researcher working on collective listening and sustainable city life with NGBG, with participatory experience involving prisons, asylum and language learners. NGBG’s Kulturljudzon protects coexistence of music, making and industry.
Conversation: How does shared music-making build agency and trust? Walk Sofielund with someone involved and discuss what a city must protect so informal culture can survive. Closest Telliskivi-style enquiry.
Library of censored literature; Speakers Corner was developed with young people aged 15–25. A particularly concrete meeting about culture as a practice of freedom.
Conversation: How do reading, performance and creative expression become things young people use to exercise freedom? Strong continuity with the Singing Revolution and Refling Hagen discussion.
Route: dawitisaakbiblioteket@malmo.se / jasmina.cordero@malmo.se · now Hyllie Boulevard 21, not old Bergsgatan address. Tue/Thu 12–21, staffed 12–16.
Emeritus cognitive-science professor, active in conceptual spaces, understanding and AI. His book Kan AI tänka? supplies a sceptical creativity/cognition perspective.
Conversation: Which external tools enlarge human conceptual creativity, and which merely supply more combinations? A good continuation of the Jaan Aru line from your original Estonia research.
Artist and digital-cultures/ethnology researcher working on technology, imagination and postindustrial environments.
Conversation: Compare Tallinn and Malmö: when does technological infrastructure enable imagination, and when do stories about innovation start determining what people can imagine?
Youth-designed space for ages 14–30 with studio, blackbox, workshop and self-organised events. A convenient addition to the preparedness conference’s library visit.
Conversation: What does ‘by young people’ mean in budgeting and decisions? Could a library host a youth-led AI studio as public cultural infrastructure?
Route: krut@malmo.se · Kung Oscars väg 11, floor 3; arrange staff conversation, respect youth-session access.
Architect-founders of an AI design platform, growing from a tool for their own practice. A concrete professional-creativity startup rather than a generic AI business.
Conversation: Working demo: which judgement can be encoded, and when do additional design options help or overwhelm an architect?
Route: Current official demo/contact route; Minc introduction possible. Confirm local meeting location rather than presuming founders remain in Malmö.
Design and engineering studio with hardware/software co-creation; projects include music devices, ClockClock and generative creativity.
Conversation: Ask to meet a designer/engineer pair doing exploratory prototyping. What can a small cultural organisation borrow from this collaboration model?
Route: hello@above.se · Grimsbygatan 24; invitation needed. Request Malmö explicitly; client-project access may be limited.
Tech coach and CEO, respectively, at the incubator; active AI Startup Network through December 2026. Most useful as connectors.
Conversation: Request two relevant founders for a lunch, ideally creative AI or youth/learning. Choose the actual people before allocating a large block of the day.
Conversation: What does building a body teach us about intelligence and trust that a chatbot cannot? Good if you want a surprising physical demonstration.
Route: christian.balkenius@lucs.lu.se · lab visit by appointment.
Research leader connecting law, institutions, trust, human–AI relations and accountability.
Conversation: What creates justified trust in public-sector AI, and what happens to preparedness when institutions depend on opaque external systems? Strong digital-state follow-up.
European network of independent cultural centres, particularly grassroots and repurposed industrial spaces. A useful Estonia-to-Europe connector.
Conversation: Ask for the colleague working with young collectives/Baltic partners: how can independent culture remain civic infrastructure under financial and political pressure?
Route: info@teh.net · Tomegapsgatan 22. Camp Meeting in Italy 22–25 October may take staff away; Tuesday is more plausible. No current director name assumed.
Art-history professor researching art’s transformative potential and teaching Arts, Aesthetics and Existential Resilience.
Conversation: How can cultural experience strengthen people’s capacity to live with uncertainty? A conceptual counterpart to Lage’s performance-based preparedness work.
Route: max.liljefors@kultur.lu.se · appointment. Sandblomdagen, Healing Power of Creativity, also appears on university calendar Thu 22, 14–17; clashes with K3.
Former workshops turned into civic innovation hub, combining assemblies, Democracy Fitness, neighbourhood work and a citizen bakery.
Conversation: How do democratic commons sustain themselves, and how does festival energy become everyday participation? Worth a dedicated excursion only with a strong hosted meeting.
Route: johan@wedodemocracy.dk / maiken@demokratigarage.dk; tours book@demokratigarage.dk · Rentemestervej 57. Allow a substantial part of the day; not within a strict one-hour Lund door-to-door radius.
Museum of artistic process and public art: unusually good for your interest in how ideas become real. Annie is current director; Emil curates Public Domain. A strong visit even without an arranged meeting.
Conversation: Look at sketches, discarded possibilities and the infrastructure behind public commissions. On Thursday choose the Public Domain curator tour or FN och konsten; both start 17:30.
First: David Cuartielles, because a yes could justify the extra day by itself. In parallel, ask Jenny/Fryshuset if you want youth plus preparedness, or Hedvig/IAC if you want art/engineering. Media Evolution is the best route for one hosted conversation spanning several fields. One or two yeses are enough; do not turn this into thirty-two invitations.
Use Jana’s existing connection: ask whether Lisa Engström or Björn Lundberg could join a coffee around the teaching day, and whether the host can introduce a culture/participation colleague. Her current email is jana.wrange@iko.lu.se; older departmental addresses may be stale. James Pamment and the Psychological Defence Research Institute are relevant, but likely belong to this existing course network before they become a separate extra-day excursion. Institute.
For a podcast: David makes the best maker/technology episode; Pille the best Estonia-to-Sweden comparison; Karin the best Arvamusfestival follow-up; Jenny or Björn the best youth/beredskap episode; Gulz the best constructive challenge to AI Leap. Agree any recording separately from a visit. Bring an observation and question rather than an interview script alone.
A useful introductory paragraph to adapt: “We are coming to Lund on 21 October to contribute to a course on psychological defence. We recently visited Estonia, meeting education and digital-society people and attending Arvamusfestival. Back in Hamar we work with a youth creativity/AI club and culture as a resource for democratic resilience. Your work on [specific project] connects to a question we brought home: [one question]. Would you have time for a small conversation and, if useful, a look at a project on 20 or 22 October?”
Bring three concrete things: one Estonia observation, an AI-klubb1 example (Oppgaveautomaten/Spørrespeilet), and one cultural-access or public-participation example such as Koigen, Kulturbase or the theatre work. Which example to show depends on the host. Leave room for them to name their own problem.
Nearby, but conditional: Copenhagen’s Demokrati Garage is a real wildcard, best with a hosted conversation; it consumes substantial travel time. Helsingborg is more relevant if the teaching venue is actually there, or Jana opens a particularly good connection. Neither detour currently beats the depth available in Lund/Malmö. An independent-music evening at Inkonst could preserve the spirit of the Tallinn jam: Ulf Eriksson, ulf@inkonst.com, is music/Intonal artistic director, Bergsgatan 29. For a verified Wednesday 21 option, MALMÖTXT 60 at 19:30 is free, with Steinar Opstad, Pajtim Statovci and Lina Wolff; jazz at Victoriateatern is the same-night alternative. No 20/22 Inkonst performance was verified. Inkonst.
Evidence and limits
Primary-source role, programme and address checks were conducted on 5 October 2026. Fit, ranking, questions and day plans are synthesis and inference. No one has confirmed availability, no bookings were made, and no outreach was sent.
Corrections that matter: STPLN moved to Malmöhusvägen 5 and its old makerspace is in the archive; VentureLab now sits inside X-Lab; Dawit Isaak Library moved to Hyllie; Annie Lindberg is the current Skissernas director; Trans Europe Halles has an Italy meeting 22–25 October and its older director references should not be reused. Youth spaces should be visited through staff arrangements. University affiliation does not prove a person is on campus that day.
The morning preparedness event has conflicting old registration deadlines across official pages (1 September / 1 October), both now passed. The afternoon’s no-registration statement is explicit. The K3 season-heading inconsistency was resolved against the dated event and Swedish autumn-2026 overview, but it is sensible to reconfirm with Tina.
Every candidate includes links to public primary sources. The Estonia background draws on the study-visit research and published Mjøsvasen podcast conversations. Personal background documents are retained separately from this website.
Research checked 5 October 2026 · A planning guide, with appointments and travel arrangements still to be confirmed.