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Week of “Slow” The Willem de Kooning Academy asked Ianus Keller to moderate the opening keynote for their project week around the theme of Slow, from October 12 to 16, 2009. In the week itself Ianus organized the project Slowliners with Dutch artist Gerard de Bruijne. A project around the notion of slowly revealing a story using a single line illustration.

In the week from October 12 to 16, 2009, the Willem de Kooning Academy organized a project week around the theme of Slow (cached). For this week Ianus Keller was asked to moderate the opening keynote in the newly opened Grand Hall of de Doelen in Rotterdam.

Speakers

The audience got a good primer on Slow design explained by Carolyn F. Strauss. Her presentation expanded on the six principles of slow design illustrated with examples of projects by artists, activists, architects and designers.

After this primer the talented and hard working Christien Meindertsma fired up the crowd with some poetic examples of interrogative and reflexive design projects. She ended her performance on a climax with PIG 05049, which looks at the astonishing afterlife of an ordinary pig in 185 non-pork products.

During the discussion after these talks we talked about the role of the audience, the consumer, the user for the slow movement and the importance of research, reflection and investigation in slow design. Naturally, I couldn’t help asking about fast as well, if slow food is a reaction to fast food, what would be good and bad exampes of take-away design?

Slowliners

Apart from the opening event, we also organized a project Slowliners in collaboration with Dutch artist and theatrical illustrator Gerard de Bruyne. The project revolved around the notion of telling a narrative using one line, drawn on music, captured on video.

Gerard de Bruyne started making One-liners as an exciting game and exercise, making a drawing arise from a single line. Gerard’s One-liners cover a variety of subjects, such as elephants, cowboys and lions. His One-liner of the Mosquito turned out to be a very useful means to make people aware of malaria. One-liners can be made anytime, anywhere and on any scale.

For the project week, we first asked our students to practice and perform the mosquito One-liner. Work from all the students was incorporated in this collaborative piece. Then all students made their own One-liner on video. The result was in an interesting, creative variety of drawings and animations on the theme. I like to show the following Slowliner by Aimée de Jong, one of the better end results.

And for more information, check out the photos of the project week below.