Álvaro Aranda Muñoz

Thoughts

Where I gather
some of my thoughts.

Notes on design, engineering, research, poetry, interactive posts and storytelling.

  1. Forty circles in coloured groups walking on a rehearsal floor seen from above
    · 15 min read

    Choreographies of Complexity

    A few days ago I had the opportunity to attend a workshop about public management, where the exercises had participants moving around the room following specific rules. Some of these exercises came from Dejan Srhoj, by way of dance and improvisational theatre, and others from Toby Lowe, a professor of public management. In this post I have done my best to capture in a digital format the movement patterns and interactions that happened in the room, to help those who could not attend understand them, and also as a way to explain some public management concepts about complex systems.

    • Design
    • Interactive
  2. The Swedish edition of the handbook open on a book stand at chapter 3
    · 2 min read

    A handbook for leading together

    On 4 June 2026 we launched Transforming how we lead together, a handbook for organisations that want to move from hierarchies towards co-creation.

    • Research
    • Design
  3. Words falling like rain onto a red umbrella held upside down
    · 2 min read

    Catch a poem in the rain

    Paste any text and it starts to rain. Catch the words you like with an upside-down umbrella, then turn them into a poem you can edit, print or keep.

    • Poetry
    • Interactive
  4. A news story blacked out with a marker, leaving only: When the city rains, the red umbrella saves the orchestra
    · 2 min read

    Black out a poem

    Every text has a poem hidden inside it. Paste one, black out the words you don't need, and keep what is left: a title, your name, and a page to print or save.

    • Poetry
    • Interactive
  5. A collage poem of paper scraps in different typefaces glued on a white sheet: Preheat the nights, Please mind the window, The stars travel, from the bed, I am writing from
    · 2 min read

    Cut up a poem

    Bring a few texts that have nothing to do with each other. Cut them into scraps, keep the ones that speak to you, and glue them into a poem nobody wrote alone.

    • Poetry
    • Interactive
  6. Everyday purchases as black circles, triangles and squares on seven dotted orbits, from an hour of streaming near the centre to flights on the outer rings
    · 3 min read

    A solar system of footprints

    The things we spend on (food, travel, things and services), orbiting around a solar system of footprints. Which orbits can we avoid?

    • Interactive
    • Design
  7. Everyday foods as black planets on seven dotted orbits, from coffee and cucumber near the centre to butter and olive oil on the outer rings
    · 3 min read

    A solar system of food

    Everyday foods, orbiting in black and white: the more kilocalories per 100 grams, the further out they travel. Add and remove planets to build your own system. Which orbit is your favourite?

    • Interactive
    • Design
  8. Drawing of two glowing glass boxes on a dark stage between two large red hearts, with an audience in silhouette
    · 3 min read

    Facilitating futures

    In 2022, I facilitated five workshops where people who train healthcare workers imagined their organisation in 2050. Here is what I learned from facilitating and holding that space.

    • Research
    • Design
  9. The Karakuri IoT toolkit on a table: standing paper tokens in four colours around a paper canvas, small sensor blocks and a tablet
    · 7 min read

    Karakuri IoT: paper tokens for factory ideas

    I was asked to build a sensor kit that factory workers could use without programming. I ended up building something made mostly of paper, and it started my PhD.

    • Research
    • Design
    • Engineering
  10. Illustration of a man in a red shirt pressing a small sensor button in the air, over a dark blue background of red squares
    · 4 min read

    Thinking with and through technology

    One of the outcomes of my PhD was a theoretical framework: four steps for preparing workshops where people who are not experts in technology imagine how it can improve their work.

    • Research
    • Design
    • Engineering
  11. Sketch of an operator touching floating panels of information in front of an industrial boiler
    · 6 min read

    HoloGraphic: bringing the control room to the machines

    In 2017 I explored how Microsoft’s HoloLens could carry the information of a control room out to the factory floor, and place it on top of the machines it belongs to.

    • Research
    • Design
    • Engineering
  12. Early prototype of a 3D factory floor with production stations, progress panels and panels for safety, quality, progress and plan
    · 2 min read

    A factory in 3D: a year of prototyping

    For close to a year I worked on a single project at ABB Corporate Research: a 3D view of a factory that let a production team see, at a glance, how their day was going.

    • Design
    • Engineering
  13. Escribirr.com home page: How to write a book, with an orange typewriter, notebooks and crumpled paper on a blue desk
    · 3 min read

    From my first websites to Escribirr.com

    Before I joined ABB Corporate Research, my first job, I made websites. Each one taught me something new, and that progress led me to create a blog about creative writing that reached half a million visits a year.

    • Design
    • Storytelling
  14. Minitomic, a smiling green cube with a red headband, over red, white and blue paint
    · 2 min read

    Minitomic: months of jumping, falling and magnets

    My final project for the master's in video game development at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM): a 2.5D platformer with a small magnetic hero. I spent months programming how he jumps, falls and gets hurt.

    • Design
    • Engineering
    • Storytelling