Wrangler Round-Up: Leena Haque

MozFest
Mozilla Festival
Published in
3 min readSep 27, 2019

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This week we’re talking with Leena Haque in our “Wrangler Round-Up” Series, where we get to know just a few of the community volunteers (aka Wranglers) who are co-designing the 2019 Festival. Leena is a User Experience Designer for BBC UX&D; digital artist, global neurodiversity advocate, tea enthusiast and sneakerhead. Leena is a Wrangler for our first-ever Neurodiversity space.

Current favorite book/movie/song/app/meme/video? I enjoy reading and watching science fiction because it introduces futuristic worlds, concepts and ideas in a really creative way. One of my favourite sci-fi books is ‘Neuromancer’ by William Gibson because he envisioned cyberspace before it even existed and was influential in inspiring the concept of the internet. Gibson, in most of his writings uses the language of imagery, neuroscience and marketing and with books like ‘Pattern Recognition’ he introduces the concept of a new breed of hyper informed super-consumers, basically they are technomads ‘living’ in information and commodification not too dissimilar to today’s hyper consumer who lives in the cloud. More importantly writers like Gibson also show us how technology plays an important part in driving cultural change.

What draws you to MozFest? I love the community feeling and the fact that it is so diverse. It naturally makes you feel like you belong and you can take things in at your own pace. It’s a place where you can engage, explore and play. Plus there’s the excitement factor of not knowing what you’ll find or see, or who you’ll meet. Last year, our friend and fellow wrangler Ian Forrester introduced us to the Mozfest organisers and from that brief conversation, we are now hosting the first ever Neurodiversity Space at Mozfest. So if you have a good idea, just go with it because anything is possible at Mozfest ☺

What unique perspective(s) do you bring to space wrangling? This year we’re bringing a neurodiverse perspective to Mozfest, which we are very excited about. Everyone has really embraced the concept and identity associated with differently wired brains and together with our ND Space, we are looking at how we can make this years Mozfest even more creative, inclusive and accessible, while appreciating everyone’s Neurodiversity.

What are you most looking forward to about your space this year? This is my first time as a space wrangler, although I have facilitated sessions at Mozfest since 2016 and loved every minute. I am really looking forward to bringing together the creative vision we have for our Neurodiversity space, as a place for people to hang out and just completely be themselves, to share experiences and stories and also to learn more about what Neurodiversity is. We’ve had so many amazing session proposals and some great art installations. I’m really looking forward to see how others have interpreted Neurodiversity and how they will share their stories and experiences. So whether you are ND or not, please come along to our space and join in the sessions we have, or even just have a look around. We have an amazing team of wranglers who are pulling this all together so feel free to ask them anything.

What link or resource would you like to share (MozFest-related, or otherwise)? Here’s a link to our very first proposal as facilitators at Mozfest — a short film we produced called ‘ND Mode’ to provide a unique lens into the world of a person who identifies as Neurodivergent.

I love visuals and the Mozfest albums are great to check out because they capture people’s memories and highlights really well but you have to be there just to see how amazing the entire experience of Mozfest really is ☺

Join Leena and a global community of creators, technologists, activists, and more for MozFest 2019 in London, 21–27 October. Get your tickets now!

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MozFest
Mozilla Festival

The world’s leading festival for the open Internet movement.