WORKSHOP
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RESEARCH
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Slow Futures Laboratory is a design research & education organization that makes, curates, and archives new narratives that imagine alternative futures to engage with sustainability in a critical and socially engaged way. As the rising number of climate activists are pushing for faster action against climate change, the general public is beginning to see the signs that our style of life, and the values placed by society in relation to our pace of life are not ideal for sustainable survival.
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We work with
Who are we?
Our vision is to become an organization that is responsible for combating the contemporary culture of acceleration and facilitating a cycle of conscious reflection and action.
We do this by employing the ‘Slow Futures Approach’ to navigating complex issues: through integrated research; immersive learning; and educated curation.
We welcome individuals who are dissatisfied with the status-quo to join us and collectively engage with global issues at a deeper level.
Stay slow, think futures, be ______________.
What is Slow futures?
‘Slow futures’ represents a category of future oriented visions that imagine new ways of production, consumption, and attention in an era of post acceleration.
This term recognizes slowness as both a consequence of unrestricted capitalist growth and as an opportunity for new ways of living and thinking about contemporary life.
What are we doing?
This organization was started because over the past several years members of Slow Future’s lab have noticed a distortion between the frictionless nature of our lived lives and the invisible or hidden consequences that come with it. At Slow Futures Lab we challenge the notion of progress as the acceleration of production, consumption or attention. Instead we gather around the word ‘slow’ as a lexicon for combatting the notion that better, faster, stronger isn’t always the answer.
Slow Futures Laboratory recognizes speed and acceleration have been fundamental points of leverage in capitalist society. We also believe that this accelerated way of living is what causes social inequality, political unravelings, and ecological dangers and is a consequence of stress being put on people, the environment, and our society.
For Slow Futures this [Slow Seoul Workshop] is a starting point for us to explore, play, and communicate our notion of what a sustainable and conscious future may look like. Rather than painting a grim, or overly positive outlook, we want to build and collect narratives that make us question our relationship with the idea of progress, time, and nature ultimately in order to have a healthier relationship with the environment around us. There are no miracles, there are no new futures, there is simply contending with the world that’s been sculpted and imagining new attitudes to live more sustainably.
Slow Seoul Workshop
Slow Seoul Workshop was a month-long experiment held at the MMCA in Seoul as part of the public programming for the Unearthing Futures Exhibition. We invited architects, designers, and artists from Seoul to reimagine the city as a consequence of anthropogenic change through speculative objects and films.
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Date 01.2020 - 02.2020
Partners Obra Architects, Celine Park Studio
Slow Seoul Exhibition
Slow Seoul Exhibition was a showcase of both the research and project development from the Slow Seoul Workshop. The exhibition was held in two locations in Seoul, and included talks and film screenings of projects and ideas developed during the workshop. The exhibition in Domansa also served as the opening exhibition for the space.
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Date 03.2020 - 05.2020
Partners Celine Park Studio, Domansa
Slow Disaster Program
The Slow Disaster Program was a two month public education program exploring notions of slow disasters through a series of workshops that explored the idea of slow disasters through different scales, perspectives, and modes of thinking. This program was in partnership with Future School as a part of the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Korean Pavilion.
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Date 09.2020 - 11.2020
Partners Future School
Slow Viewer Zine Vol.1
For contemporary issues on slow culture.
This is the first issue of the slow viewer a zine created by bunch of people at Slow Futures Laboratory. Here we talk about slow culture, technology, the environment and all the things in between that negotiate our future.
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Date 03.2021 - 09. 2021
