"Then“, says the stranger with quiet enthusiasm, "then you may relax here in the harbor with you mind set at easy, doze on the sunshine - and look out on the magnificent sea.“ „But that is what I am doing just now“ - says the Fisherman.' - Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral (Heinrich Böll, 1972)
Since the 1980s, the Slow movement has advocated for a cultural shift toward decelerating life in social areas such as food, culture, media consumption, and urban planning. Resonating with the commitment of Carlo Petrini's Slow Food movement or Carl Honoré's book In Praise of Slowness, numerous debates began about the establishment of Slow Education, Slow Fashion, and others in resonance with our era of "social acceleration" (Rosa, 2013).
However, in times of looming ecological and sociopolitical crises, the call for rapid "real-time" solutions is as insistent as ever. While sociologist Hartmut Rosa has diagnosed acceleration as the predominant symptom of a late-modern society, philosopher Byung-Chul Han outlines that the real problem is not to be found in the speed of social engagement as the economization of the self, but rather in our lack of ability to shape meaningful biographies that are more than the sum of moments of success at work, vacation pictures on social media, and short-term family commitments. During the COVID pandemic, the rates of out-births increased significantly, which could be a reliable indicator that deceleration alone is not a sufficient remedy for our competitive service society.
Together with Tina Auger & Tim Boykett, founders of "Time’s UP - Laboratory for the construction of experimental and experiential situations", as well as Prof. Dr. Karmen Franinovic and designer Rasa Weber, the MA students of Interaction Design will work on designing *ASLAP speculative future scenarios for lowering the work ethics and designing a prospective SLOWSCIETY. The students will engage in field work, prototyping and speculation around the sectors of urban space, healthcare, education, culture and ecology to develop meaningful societal models of resistant, inefficient, meditative and monolithic engagement.
*ASLSP = abbreviation for as slow as possible, after John Cage’s "ORGAN²/ASLSP“.
- Kursanbieter/in: Rasa Weber