Is the world getting faster?

The exhaustingly fast pace of life promotes overstimulation and overscheduling. In turn, this pressure becomes a chronic stressor that leads to behavioural, mood, and attention disorders in a vicious circle. The pressure of fast, faster, fastest leads to a laundry list of issues for people of all ages. Nowadays elementary school-age children are struggling with obesity, depression, anxiety, attention disorders, and various types of learning disabilities, and burnouts are common among younger adults.

Not to mention, sociopolitical and ecological issues around living in this era called the anthropocene have added a global sense of urgency, and new diagnoses like ‘climate anxiety’ have started popping up.

The ambiguity of time

Technology offers increasing accessibility and information for us to educate ourselves, and help ourselves in these matters. We can also connect with people however we want, and choose to disengage by the click of a button. These new possibilities, however, demand more engagement and – time. Social media platforms become more customizable and complex at the same time. Leisure or ‘free’ time is a relatively new phenomenon, needless to say in the Western culture, yet many have developed a fear of missing out. Global economy becomes faster yet more intricate, to keep up with a higher demand. And still there are shortages of labour and resources.

In the book ‘In the Meantime: Temporality and Cultural Politics’ (2014), Sarah Sharma relates the notion of an ‘accelerated world’ to a politics of temporality. The sentiment of a faster world is not necessarily shared by taxi drivers, yoga instructors or farmers. Perhaps we have a hand in how we perceive the world, and keep up with it.

The critical zone

What we assume as a fact of life has implications for our behaviour and ideals. Bruno Latour points out that our understanding of the cosmic order, of the earth as a blue sphere floating in outer space, directly impacts our perception. Understanding the world from this conditioned and distant perspective might have made us disconnected from our direct surroundings and our effect on it. We lost sight of how the world keeps on spinning on local levels. And in turn, this influences future prospectives on sustainability.

When we speak of ‘landing on earth’, we imply that not all experience is earthly and that one can step out of it. But there is a geological critical zone, i.e the earth is made up of a wide layered atmosphere, with access to layers of soil and a different meaning to time. When we ‘zoom in’, it is apparent how intricately connected all beings are, like a network of processes. Each element has its own rhythm and schedule, from dewdrops that form every morning, to perspiration on our skin that comes and goes, or permafrost in the ground.

Grounded politics

When we zoom in and work with this concept of earth that includes the ‘critical zone’, the notion of local environments becomes more relevant. A variety of ecosystems function side by side, with their own cycles, biodiversity and adaptability. Likewise, something as seemingly abstract as physics exists inside the earth, rather than outside of it. This shift of focus has implications on systems that we otherwise assume to be logical and straightforward. Traditional systems of rationality, science, etc. organise our lives along linear lines of space and time. Yet, we are as much a part of those heterogenous layers of material that make up the very complexity we try to research.

Maybe it’s time to shift the focus to the inside, to the soil of the earth. To focus on the interdependent processes that we rely on. Such a methodology calls towards a grounded politics – one that takes into consideration things that are more tangible and possibly non-human. This means, however, that we require training for a different kind of sensitivity. One that signals what is in-between those layers, namely processes on micro- and macroscopic level alike.

Process-based practices

In recent decades, more people start adopting ‘no hurry’ lifestyles, whether that includes living offgrid, meditation retreats, or package-free grocery stores. In this way, slowing down could satisfy the feeling, and pressure, of needing to act. One could be contributing to positive change by doing less. Also artists are increasingly focusing on ‘slow practices’ or craft materials. The ambassador for fold #04 No hurry, Alexandra Drenth’s practice is handbased. She can take two years to work on one piece. In another example, Richard Long’s work is made up of continuous walking with no end goal. Focussing on processes of nature and society might hold the key to a new sensory perspective, and possible solutions for sustainability.

Now what does it mean to focus on the process, rather than the result? How our perception develops influences what we view as tangible, or as a surface to work with. Moreover, this broadening of perception challenges what a medium could be. Subsequently, what does it mean to be ‘on Earth’ and who/what is included?

No hurry at SEA

From April – July 2022 we will unfold the relationship of no hurry and sustainability by means of artistic work and collaboration, and presentations.

The programme is born out of a conviction that artists’ perspectives have an important role to play in the framing of international, national and institutional responses to threat and conflict. We believe that the capacity of the arts to effectively influence policy development has not been systematically explored, exploited or applied. The ecological crisis is overwhelmingly the result of human action, and at the same time, humans must find ways to sustain our species. Over the span of 2020, we presented artists/artist collectives in a virtual vitrine that brought us closer to the specific focus of diverse practices which we saw as crucial in addressing sustainability. The #sea_youhere virtual vitrine started as a showcase of artistic practices and developed into an open-ended research programme.

Ambassador fold#04

The ambassador for fold #04 on No hurry is artist and embroiderer Alexandra Drenth. Based in Amsterdam, she creates vibrant and mystical textile collages. Taking inspiration from music lyrics and poetry, Starting as a photographer and oil painter, Alexandra works mainly in textiles. Materials from a timeless place, a mix between sentiment, tradition and transcience. Re-use of textile materials is the starting point of all her work. Her textiles are a journey through time where no sense of time exists. The central theme in her work is sensitivity, particularly seen from a female perspective.

Reading sources

Latour, Bruno, and Peter Weibel. “Seven Objections against Landing on Earth.” Critical Zones: The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth. MIT Press, 2020.

Latour, Bruno. Facing Gaia: Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime. Polity Press, 2017.

Long, Richard. Richard Long, Walking the Line. Thames & Hudson, 2002.

Sharma, Sarah. In the meantime: temporality and cultural politics. Duke University Press, 2014.

Todd, Sharon. “‘Landing on Earth:’ an educational project for the present. A response to Vanessa Andreotti.” Ethics and Education, vol. 16 nr. 2, 2021.

This is only a selection of reading resources on No hurry. For the full reading list suggestions visit the No hurry reading list.