Slow Reader: A Resource for Design Thinking and Practice

by Carolyn Strauss (Editor)

Slow Reader collects theoretical reflections and practical perspectives from writers, designers, architects, artists and environmental activists that aspire toward a holistic vision of human activity. Contributors include Yochai Benkler, Maria Blaisse, Chet Bowers, Olafur Eliasson, Eric Ellingsen, Emilio Fantin, Fernando Garcia-Dory, Lotte van Gelder, Jeanne van Heeswijk, the nanopolitics group, Jogi Panghaal, Eva Pfannes (Ooze Architects), Ann Pendleton-Jullian, Alessandra Pomarico, Marjetica Potr´c, Julian Raxworthy, Uzma Rizvi, Niels Schrader and Christina Werner.

Positioned as a “resource for design thinking and practice,” this book challenges the paths through which contemporary designers conventionally operate and the values of speed and efficiency that dominate discourse. Slow Reader is intended to inspire readers well beyond the design field, serving as a vehicle for reflection, imagination and further investigation of “slower” approaches to living.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Art, Art Design

255 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2017

Reviews

[jo ianni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and well designed resource for thinking about design as intersectional, holistic and beyond a simple conception of the physical. The book contains a diverse array of writing where some essays run against each other providing for intriguing moments of introspection for me, the reader. If anyone following me is interested in design at the levels of economy, art, architecture, dance, pedagogy (almost anything it seems in this text) this is a book worth borrowing from your local library. The resources it provides to other text are a wealth of information I cannot wait to dive into. Thank you to the people who pout this text together. An educational and enjoyable and generative experience of reading critical writing.

[Tao Huang]

I like the chapter of "building a wilderness with Louis Le Roy". It mentions "In planning terms, the metaphor of the gap was a place that was out of society’s control, outside the labor cycle, valueless, simply ecological. Members of the Time Foundation were trying to establish a type of land use called ‘Ecocathedral Process’ in the land use zoning plan for the Netherlands, specifically for this purpose: a buffer strip where a resilient natural system could operate outside the economic and productive land use system."

[Jaana Hotakainen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great constellation of texts and a thought provoker.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a stunning read, reading these different essays really expanded and challenged my previous understanding of many interconnected ways of conceptualizing art, movement, community, and dominant cultural pedagogies. I would like to think this should be required reading for every individual. Slow Reader is truly an interdisciplinary way of approaching being, in both the individual and collective sense. I appreciate The Slow Lab showcasing these essays through this book, I’ll be re-reading it constantly.