Robyn to Perform at Second Tekla Fest Encouraging Women in Technology
Swedish pop singer Robyn and Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) will bring back the Tekla festival, which aims to promote the inclusion of women in technology, Pitchfork reports.
The one-day event will take place April 9th at KTH and will be open to girls ages 11 through 18. This year’s festival will feature 28 workshops and activities covering a variety of topics like space exploration, music production, game design, 3D printing, robot programming and protein purification. Robyn will also perform at the end of the festival as part of a DJ session with Swedish house/techno duo, Y+M.
After the success of last year’s inaugural event, this year’s Tekla festival will be open to 400 girls. Registration is free and runs from March 1st – 18th on the Tekla website. A complete description of the event and specific activities will be available at that time.
A video for the 2016 event offers a look at last year’s workshops, and also features Robyn and KTH president Peter Gudmundson discussing the importance of closing the gender gap in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Robyn noted how important it was for girls to both explore these fields among each and see women working in technology in order to better visualize themselves following a similar path.
“Even when I started making music, it was very hard to find space as a girl to play around and make mistakes, or have a band with my friends, or find an environment that felt more comfortable where I could figure out things about what I really liked to do,” Robyn said. She added: “When there are only girls in a room, girls tend to pick up a new instrument that they probably wouldn’t play if there was a boy in the room.”
Outside Tekla, Robyn remains at work on the follow-up to her three 2010 Body Talk albums. In 2014 she teamed with Röyksopp for an EP titled Do It Again.