DESIGN_ Slower Internet is about more than speed. The Consortium for Slower Internet pursues projects that promote duration, defamiliarization, autonomy and divergence, merging nature with everyday electronics.
Duration - There is no inherent concern with information that is transmitted and distributed with great speed, but Slower Internet suggests that information be consumed at a more contemplative pace. If information is to be a central part of our lives, Slower Internet is interested in finding ways to live with it on more human time scales; news, facts, updates, etc should be absorbed slowly and given time for consideration. Systems that emphasize duration are central to a Slower Internet.
Defamiliarization - The information delivered by Fast Internet is the white bread of data: predictable, lifeless, sanitized for mass appeal. Slow Internet delivers content in unexpected formats and spaces. The practice of defamiliarization encourages users to scrutinize their role and participation in a given system. Seamless experiences are suspect.
Autonomy - Fast Internet dazzles with maximum features at minimum price, but it often does so at the expense of user autonomy. Increasingly, users are encouraged to sacrifice their rights to own material they produce with a given system when services are rendered free of charge. Slower Internet respects user autonomy by giving creators control and ownership over their data. Charging reasonable fees for a service is always preferable to spying on customers and appropriating their data to serve advertisements.
Divergence - Computers have long been universal machines, able to perform any calculation regardless of content. A Slower Internet, however, requires that dissimilar tasks occur in a diversity of spaces on a multitude of devices. Living with information does not mean that we have to give any type of machine a monopoly over our attention. Slower Internet is a process of cultivating a garden of machines that fit localized, individual desires.
The Cybernetic Meadow Collection is a set of handmade objects that seek to reorient your relationship to consumer electronics in your home. Each piece is a functional transitional object that invites you to question the configuration of forces that bring endless torrents of data into your living space.piece is a functional transitional object that invites you to question the configuration of forces that bring endless torrents of data into your living space.
Networks + New Towns: Chapter 4 from Consortium for Slower Internet on Vimeo.
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