In 1996 Svante Tidholm was a punk internet jockey. He parlayed his curiousity for technology and culture into a job at one of Sweden's first Internet agencies, Spray.se. He chose well; Spray became one of Europe's premier design shops, and it was purchased by the American firm Razorfish for stock during the height of the Internet stock frenzy.

By mid-year 2000, Svante had sold most all of his internet stock, and set about to building himself a DemonBox.

DemonBox

I met Svante online; we were both journal writers. He was remarkable for his social consciousness and he was the first young man I met who was writing about his life from a foreign country. I travelled to Stockholm in 2000 for SIME and dropped by Svante's new house in Sundbyberg; three stories of unfinished walls, half constructed living spaces. Around a bottle of imported tequila, Svante unfolded his plans for DemonBox.

It was to be a model for post-internet content production. "Let's make it real." Screenprinting facilities, a recording studio, a performance space. Artists, musicians, writers, activists living together.

A year later, it's much as he said - a screenprinting facility hums daily, generating the t-shirts and posters. DemonBox has published nearly a dozen albums and books. Ten strange and beautiful young folks share space and projects. I was happy to visit them in May 2001.