The INturns was a different knowledge-sharing project. The idea was to have five interns, in the shape of five USB dolls, travel around the. The five; Melvin Lee, Sally Parker, Fred Hanson, Caroline von Elten & Bob Tyler, all had different identities and came from different places around the globe, but shared an interest for design in broad terms and all knew each other through LYNfabrikken in Denmark.

The 5 USB dolls were send to design businesses and organisations in Denmark and around the world. In the course of the internship, approximately two weeks, the businesses and organizations were to load the INturn with information about the business, a project, a product, an education or something else of interest for a design oriented INturn.
Along with them the INturns brought a camera, this way it is not just information in words but also pictures that tell the story of the INturns stay.

The mission was to document the design world in a new way. At the same time LYNfabrikken’s wish was for the product – since the companies or organisations describe themselves through words and pictures – to reach a bit further or become a bit more personal than an outside description.

The five unique INturn dolls were created by Kenn Munk who is trained as a graphic designer, but did a great job sculpting the five little personalities. Each INturn is one of a kind and sculpted by hand in PVC with a Mimobot providing the needed technological skeleton.

As the INturns travelled the world we were amazed to see how much attention an sympathy a small doll that effectively is no more than a sculpted block of PVC with a face panted on it could muster

To descripe the deep felt reactions and experiences from the INturns hosts we came up with the term “PVC with Value”. When we first started the project, we never imagined the sort of ‘relationship’ some of the hosts devolped to their INturn.

As a result Bob kept getting Christmas cards from his hosts, and when Fred disappeared during his INturnship a searchteam was formed immediately (he was found quickly and luckily suffered no major trauma). All of this off course contributed the the unique and extensive knowledge the INturns gathered during their travels.

Bob Tyler: 33 year-old Bob was last year hired as a teacher at the Australian Academy of Design. In 2003 Bob participated in a large conference in the Danish city of Aarhus. The conference was about the future of design. At this conference Bob made contact with the Aarhus based design organisation LYNfabrikken, and together they agreed on that Bob should be a part of LYNfabrikkens grand project INturns and thus travel the entire world to explore design related subjects.

These are the pictures Bob brought home after having spent an INturnship at a movie set in Stuttgart. He was the personal assistant of the movie director herself.

These are the pictures Bob brought home after having spent an INturnship at a movie set in Stuttgart. He was the personal assistant of the movie director herself.

Caroline von Elten: Caroline has always wanted an education in design. Her big dream is to be accepted at The Design Academy in Holland, unfortunately she lacks international experience before she can be accepted. Caroline’s mother is dutch and her father is japanese, through an acquainted of her father’s she has got in contact with a smaller design organization in Denmark called LYNfabrikken, who would be glad to help her with some internships around the world. Besides the international experience Caroline wants to get as much knowledge as possible about design. Her father’s acquainted says that she’ll get both in her internships.

The pictures are from the time Caroline INturned at the Danish broadcasting company TV2’s design department. She travelled with them the cinference Typo Berlin where her hosts gave a lecture.

Fred Hanson: 29-year-old attending the last part of his education at the UMEA Institute of Design in Sweden. Apart from his studies he is the head of the exchange of international students via the program Two Worlds Unite. Fred Hanson has not yet been an intern himself, which is why he during the following period of time will be send out to different places through his contact LYNfabrikken in Denmark.

For his INturnship Fred stayed with his maker Kenn Munk and followed his graphic design work as well the creation of even more little PVC-creatures.

Melvin Lee: 23 years old and studying design at National Institute of Design, Ahmebad, India where Melvin is attending the design consultancy services line at his second year. Through the exchange program Two Worlds Unite he has attended the UMEA design school in Sweden for the past two months and does head of the exchange program Fred Hanson organize now starting an extended period of internship. Melvin’s education demands a wide orientation in the entire design world. After a long chat with Fred in Sweden – who told Melvin about his contact LYNfabrikken in Denmark – he decided to go there.

These pictures are from Melvin’s visit at Future Farmers in San Fransisco. Future Farmers is an artistic design collective that among many other great achievements are responsible for the Twitter-logo. Melvin followed all their activeties high or low – including chasing a rat in the studio.

Sally Parker: a 24-year-old design student from England. Sally was last year accepted at the Royal College of Art at the line for Design Products, she has just ended her first year. 14 days after her final exam she travelled to UMEA in Sweden, as part of the exchange program Two Worlds Unite. Part of Sally’s exchange program consists of a series of internships – where she does not know yet, but as Fred, head of the exchange program in Sweden, says: ‘Don’t worry, my contact in Denmark, LYNfabrikken, will see to that it will be both exciting and that you’ll get a brought knowledge of design’.

Sally’s pictures are from her travels with a touring dance company, that took her with them to Turkey and Singapore.