aug / sep 2026
We ran very late on our fifth issue, but as always we’re very proud of our lineup for this edition. Tomas Diez leads our fifth issue. Tomas is a Venezuelan urbanist who leads the Fab City Foundation, advocating for cities to produce their own resources sustainably. Starting with Fab Lab Barcelona and the Smart Citizen project, he aims to empower communities through technology. Now based in Bali, he focuses on local innovations and global sustainability efforts with Fab Lab Bali. In this interview, he shares how he got started and how the pledge has now grown to 61 cities and counting.
READ STORY
“This is really, for me, one of the key contributions of the Fab Lab network: distributing the power of production to local communities in the era of the internet.”
– Tomas Diez
THE PROFILES Behind the Work. THE STORIES BEHIND THE BUILD.
THE CREATORS’ JOURNEYs.
Genevieve Reyes: Cinematography and Nature
A Filipina cinematographer with credits across film and television, Genevieve “Gen” Reyes has built a body of work that moves between narrative storytelling and physically demanding environments. She is the cinematographer of Incognito, a popular Netflix series in the Philippines, alongside other film and series projects in her growing portfolio. She also films underwater, performs diving stunts, rides horses, summits mountains, and takes beautiful photographs. On top of these, she is a canine trainer and life coach. It is not a typical combination of disciplines. In this interview, we talk to her just about all of that, and a little bit more.
“I was trying to bring a different visual approach to Philippine television while establishing myself as a woman in what is still a very male dominated field.”
– Genevieve “Gen” Reyes
Jonny Hideout: Love for Film Is Only the Dessert
Jonny Hideout is the founder of The Hideout Film Club London, a thriving horror community that has become a genuine home for so many people, with over 2,700 members. He is also the co-founder, alongside his pal Tom Harris, of the much larger Movie Roadhouse London, a vibrant cinema-loving community that embraces all genres, including international cinema, and now brings together more than 22,700 people who share a deep passion for film. In this interview, we talk to Jonny about films, the horror genre, filmmaking, London, America, books, community, and why he believes it is especially important now to keep building spaces for people to gather.
“The film gives us a reason to come together. It gives us something in common and something to talk about, which is important because sometimes people need that.”
– Jonny Hideout
Mariia Karpenko:
Dressing the Cosplay World
For more than fifteen years, Mariia Karpenko has been part of the cosplay world. What started when she was a teenager searching for people she felt comfortable around eventually became a public identity and, through economic necessity, a business. Today, her studio FD Cosplay Studio operates from Kyiv with a team of around 30 people, creating bespoke costumes for customers across the United States and Europe. She now has over 100,000 followers on Instagram as Fenix Fatalist. And her business, FD Cosplay Studio has over 102,000 followers.
“Duality is something that has followed me throughout my life, and now I use that idea consciously in my personal identity and in the way I think about the studio’s identity too.”
– Mariia Karpenko
Dr. Kat Hernandez: Normalizing Disability Through Sport and Story
Dr. Katrina “Kat” Marie O. Hernandez is a physician, a para-powerlifter, and a wheelchair user who recently competed for the Philippines at the 13th ASEAN Para Games in Thailand. She took home silver in para-powerlifting. Alongside medicine and sport, she built Kat Out of the Box (@kat.outofthebox), an online platform that uses storytelling, digital content, talks, and workshops to spark conversations on inclusion, representation, and what it’s actually like to navigate the world as a person with a disability. For this interview, we ask Dr. Kat about her path into medicine, sport, and disability, what it’s like practicing medicine and competing internationally, and her advocacy on normalizing disability.
“When we honor these differences, we widen our imaginations to the different ways that people live life and we just make space for everyone.”
– Dr. Kat Hernandez
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dotSpotlight features conversations, stories, inspiration, and passion that drive global digital creators, creatives, founders, and tech builders. It is brought to you by Cheryl Fuerte and Stefan Janssens, the founders of 2nd.digital, a network of global independent agencies focusing on creative digital production, digital marketing, search, and data science.
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