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If you are interested in THE SLOW MOVEMENT then the above 'Slow Kitchen' by Anthony Hamilton Smith, 2008, is for you!!!!!! It provides both a physical and beautiful structure for a slow kitchen that is mobile and simple and challenges the notion of 'What a kitchen could be?' Can you imagine seeing a multitude of people riding around our villages and towns with their 'Slow Kitchens' stopping off at the community garden to make some lunch with freshly picked vegetables?
Victory Garden in Civic Center Plaza taken during the Slow Food Nation festival.
Photograph By Mckennagene, 2008
The 'Slow Kitchen' challenges the current fad of fast food and the fast paced lives that many people live. This fast-paced working life would never allow us to be so 'weird' or 'far-out' to prepare 'slow' food. Or does it? Maybe there exists a 'slow food' policy in the corporate world? Perhaps some companies are planting their own gardens whereby staff are able to tend and eat from?
To want to eat food that has been slowly, organically and locally grown then cooked in a nearby kitchen, whether at work, in the town center or at home is an important issue surrounding our well being. The current models of societal organization and structure need to be challenged and set out in a 'new way'. 'Slow Kitchen' by Hamilton, is one new design that perhaps is the start of shifting the dominant 'fast-food' 'fast paced life' paradigm.
The Slow Food Nation Marketplace, with the event's slogan.
Photograph by Alexis Madrigal
Upon viewing the 'Slow Kitchen' my mind has been inundated with thoughts and connections to other 'Slow Movement' supporters. My sister who is also a fellow mountain bike enthusiast, Scientist, and cook had an article published in NATURE magazine about 'Slow Science'. Lisa Alleva explains;
'As an older, experienced, part-time postdoctoral fellow, I have observed a trend amongst my younger, more vigorous colleagues to experiment themselves into oblivion. Following the lead of the 'slow food' movement, I suggest we adopt a philosophy of 'slow science' to address this issue, which I believe is damaging the very basis of scientific enquiry.'
Pavilions at Slow Food Nation
Photograph by David Silver
So even in science they are urging other Scientists to adopt a 'Slow Science' philosophy that requests that experiments need to slow down be cultivated in a mindful way that does not involve taking shortcuts that inhibit quality and forsake more traditional methods of Scientific enquiry.
Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food movement, says the movement 'strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and promotes farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristics of the local ecosystem.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Food
Photograph by Leonard G
I remember riding around Byron Bay on Christmas day with panniers packed full of prepped food, seafood and champagne on ice. We were headed for the free B.B.Q.'s on Byron Bay's Main Beach to cook up a feast while watching some of the best ocean views in the world.
Now Hamilton's 'Slow Kitchen' would have been perfect for that day as we would not have had to wait in line for the B.B.Q.'s that were busy with travelers from around the world cooking up their Christmas Day feasts!! Instead we could have enjoyed the journey to our own peaceful spot, soaked in the views and cooked on our own cooker with our own 'Slow Kitchen.' Perhaps this model could be turned into a 'SLOW ART STUDIO' where one can stop and create some 'Slow Art?'
What is Slow Art anyway? After reading a definition that was cited from WIKIPEDIA (below) I remembered a conversation I had with my mother about her visit to The Master's Exhibition at the National Art Gallery in Canberra. She mentioned that she had to leave the exhibition in a state of total 'social claustrophobia.' She explained that she could not appreciate the artwork due to the multitude of people creating a 'hustle and bustle' in a traditional blockbuster gallery setting.
How can you 'experience' an art work and go on a 'journey' when all you can see are the back of people's heads in front of one of the world's most famous and supposedly outstanding paintings?
'Slow art' was coined by Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic and columnist for the New York Times. 'Slow art's' main philosophy is 'appreciating an art work in itself as opposed to a rapid, flitting witnessing of art common in a hectic societal setting.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Movement
For more reading check out this really good article published September 7, 2005, in the TIMES magazine about Slow Art, 'Slow Art - it's the new Slow Food. No, really..'
Here is a small snippet from writer
'Art-world acceleration I put down to various forces. First, we are just as prone to being sucked into the idea that fast is somehow central to modernity. To be relevant is to be broadband-quick and dressed for next season. Apparently artists also need to become museum-supply companies with a high turnover of works if they want to succeed internationally.'
'I hereby declare the launch of the Slow Art Movement (I have not hired a PR). Artists, I call on you to spend some quality time with a sketchbook before pointing the digital camera out of the car window.'
'If we all spent longer thinking, making and looking perhaps less bad art would get made, shown and seen.'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidsilver/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
This following quote is from Wikipedia.
'One of its central tenets is that people often seek out what they already know as opposed to allowing the artist to present a journey or piece in its entirety.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Movement This notion is exemplified by John Hamilton's 'Slow Kitchen'.
'Another interpretation of Slow Art relates to creating art
in a slow way. This practice is about being mindful of
detail, valuing the history inherent in re-usable materials, putting time into creating small items. The practice encourages the maker to be naturally meditative as they create. "Slow" ends up being a way of being. An example of local makers creating in this way is highlighted by those involved with the inaugural Eastside Makers Market in Tasmania.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Movement
When something appears to be lacking in our lives we seek something that is a fast fix or cure. Yet the very nature of filling the void within ourselves or healing is established in the notion of 'slowing down'. By slowing things down and looking at how we can see things in 'new ways' we take on a more connected, relaxed and mindful approach to life and by incorporating these ideas about Slow Art, Slow food, Slow Kitchen and Slow Science into our lifestyle we are perhaps honoring ourselves, others and the environment by living slowly.
Some links for further reading:
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