Speed Bump – A Slow-City and Slow-Life Workshop
with Dominique Rey, Winnipeg Arts Ambassador (Visual Art)
Friday November 5 @ 3:00 pm
Fort Garry Hotel – Salon A, Main Floor
Limited participation. Sign up is required at registration table.
Sick with hurry, sick with time, our culture’s addiction to speed is engraved at the deepest level of the mind. The maxim “speed equals power” has many under its adrenaline-induced spell. The tentacles of this vast machinery connect to all societal spheres, creating a desire and craving for acceleration everywhere. Is it possible to resist this tidal wave? Radical slowness may be one possible counterpoint in a world where the mechanisms of innovation and power are running out of control.
Slowness is counter to our notions of the city as thriving, alive, and fast paced. Before asking where and how slowness can enter our lives, we must first answer why. If productivity and success are the predominant mottos of our time, why should we want to slow down? The reality is that the bombardment and cacophony of the world around us, as well as the world within us, is depleting and unsustainable, and greatly jeopardizes our quality of life. Despite the challenge of switching off this mind-set, more and more people are seeing the value and necessity of giving oneself the gift of slowness. The use, purpose and relevance of slowness is to give back to the present moment its’ true worth, allowing for a more reflective way of being. The slow movement has become a worldwide phenomenon that is transforming cities everywhere, including food production, food consumption, health, sex, work, leisure, education, transportation, childrearing, urban planning, and the environment.
As a forum for discussion and experimentation, this workshop will provide participants tools and tactics for creating slow cities and slow lives. Taking the shape of a slowness think tank, our aim will be to find pathways to finding slowness in the everyday, allowing it to infiltrate and transform our world, starting with the symposium. Throughout the days of My City’s Still Breathing, we will perform random and organized acts of slowness. A “Slow” List will be gleaned from our experiments and interventions at the conclusion of the symposium. This invitation to slowness will be a catalyst for unexpected and practical applications of slowness in people’s everyday lives.
