Your monthly non-spammy-gif-heavy newsletter from your friends at oio.

Greetings friends, how are things? Feels like autumn’s slowly creeping in, get those last bits of sunshine!

In this issue, we have a look at some updates on our beloved mur mur: the promised DIY kit, and some press links. We’re also opening a new space in Barcelona, some highlights from a workshop in Pune, India, and finally one more entry to the oio team corner! And don’t forget the cool links at the end of the newsletter. So let’s dive in! 🤿

It has been a month since the release of mur mur, the speaker with a world inside, and we are still quite overwhelmed by the love we have received. People have asked how they could own, or purchase, or even build their own mur mur. While the little speaker is currently still in its prototype stage, we’ve been working hard on a DIY kit so that you can have a taste of it in the setting of your own room. Now, the kit is finally ready for you to build.

On mur mur’s GitHub page, you will find step-by-step instructions on how to assemble your own speaker, including a list of hardware materials to order and software that will run on your local computer. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot us a message on our discord!

The project was featured in a few places, such as It’s Nice That, Creative Applications, Design Boom and Yanko Design, culture and trend platforms Hype Beast and Trend Hunter(Future Festival), and music technology communities Sonic Field and YouBeat.

We couldn’t have done this alone. It was great pleasure to be working along with Mattering, exploring live ambient sounds within simulated ecologies. As our friends from Mattering said, it was a journey of “sowing seeds rather than drawing blueprints.” Also, a big shoutout to Morgan Whitney for helping us create the sound mix for our feature reel!

We’ve got exciting news • oio Barcelona is having its grand opening! Join us for drinks in our new office, close to Tetuan station. Mark your calendars:

📆 Sep 18th, around 6-7pm
📍oio bcn (feel free to leave some reviews on Google Maps 👀)

Sign up and join us below ↓

Last month, oio’s creative technologist Marta Fioravanti visited Pune, India and joined fellow colleague Shamik Ray to give a course on Designing Agentic Experiences, a summer school pop-up by CIID and FLAME University 🔥. During the week-long workshop, participants explored interactive systems that have agency, examining how communication, timing, and behaviour influence trust, transparency, and user control.

Through both theory and hands-on prototyping, the program gave participants a chance to rethink AI systems that are not simply functional, but also meaningful, responsible, and aligned with human needs and contexts.

Any readers in Greece? Mark your calendars, because our co-founder Simone will be speaking at BAUTOPIA, a three-day culture & creativity festival hosted in Athens, Greece from October 7–9. Come see Simone present some of our latest work, or just drop by to say hi!

Check out BAUTOPIA’s website for further information on the event.

Welcome back to another oio team corner™ where, once again, you get to meet one of the bright souls behind the work of oio. Next up, please say hi to… Norman 🎩

Everything extraordinary the oio team does, Norman tells the world about it. Norman (or normz, as his friends like to call him) is oio’s communications guy, in charge of all things public, including social media, the newsletter (yes he’s cringing writing in 3rd person) and the occasional Discord community engagement. 🌐 Born in Hsinchu, a northern city in Taiwan, normz has travelled between countries and cities, before finally setting foot on the costal land of Barcelona. Normz joined the team in the fall of 2024 after finishing his studies in design and branding, and has ever since been blowing life into the legacy of oio’s story.

One of the greatest challenges running comms for oio, normz describes, is finding the perfect balance between information and storytelling. As oio’s work often stems from the latest technology and it’s relationship to the current social context, presentation of the work can easily get dull if the narrative focuses too much on the “how” instead of the “why.” Before each project launch, the whole team sits down to brainstorm narrative angles, while analyzing current trends and relating them to the themes we’re tackling. Then, thanks to the talented team of designers and visual storytellers, we are able to bring the stories to life through engaging graphics, videos and posts.

Serving as the bridge between oio and the public, normz’s position provides an opportunity for him to observe the team from a distance. Spread across Europe, the remote working team has found ways to connect and engage on a daily basis. From the morning standups to the oio open mics, from the 1-on-1 coffee chats to the occasional lunch and learn, the oio nerds find pleasure through simple acts like telling a horrible dad joke or sharing the latest updates on their van renovation. A fun anecdote that still stays on normz’s mind is the time when a couple colleagues were “flushed” out of their meeting room to join the main group for the EoD check-in. It was a long Friday afternoon, and we were getting tired of waiting for the other guys in our virtual meeting room on Discord. Instead of texting, the moderator simply made a few clicks and removed the other meeting room as a whole. Till this day, the lore of the disappearing room still circulates. Who says a little mischief can't make a good story.

Outside of his 9–5, normz also enjoys design, photography and drawing, among other art making practices. He is also a dancer of dancehall, a vibrant dance and music style that originated from Jamaica. If you’d like to connect, give him a follow on Instagram 🙌

Another tasty load of handpicked 𝕠𝕚𝕠 𝕔𝕖𝕣𝕥𝕚𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕕™ fine goods from our Discord community (not there yet? Join now 🏃‍♂️).

🧱 your room as a canvas _(lk)
🔐 every private key _(www)
📟 buddy up _(ig)
🚬 life accelerator _{(maker world)}
👉 do it_(www)
🏎️ mario kart but on youtube _(yt)
💾 tiny emulators _(www)
🌴 pikuniku 2 _(yt)
🏟️ highjacking fifa _(www)
📅 local ai meetup stockholm _(www)

Want to share your cool links? Join us on Discord!

🌐 www: ant transport
🕹 game: into the unwell
📁 arena: time riddles
📚 wiki: chiva bus
🔧 tool: caffeine

drink up!

~ M+N