Slow Thinking Lab

Slow Thinking Lab met at the Saari Residence in August of 2021. Our aim was to take a deeper dive into our multiple goals and motivations – moored within our respective varied scientific disciplines and artistic practices. We needed to find a common, yet sufficiently nuanced, language, and set some shared foundations for future research. We also worked through our approaches in terms of research ethics. Through intense discussions and sometimes heated debates, we clarified the goals and parameters of our project and with that, transformed our name and crystallised our future plan of action. Thus the result of this residency now reads:
Flourishing through connectivity: the ‘slowACES project – accessing connectivity experiences through slowness’

This project is about bringing together scientific, spiritual and artistic perspectives to facilitate connectivity.

The ‘slowACES’ project will create practical examples and models of how to improve our connectivity, both within ourselves and to other living things, through experiences of art, nature, healing and silence. The researchers involved come from medicine, complementary medicine, Sami indigenous studies, art history and artistic research. This combination allows us to combine experiential understanding with analytical approaches. Research outputs will include artworks, performances, book and written articles, allowing policymakers and the public to reflect on ways of improving wellbeing, reducing loneliness and increasing connectivity through non-commercialized practices. The world is at a turning point due to global warming, and the Covid pandemic which has isolated individuals and increased loneliness. Public engagement will be central to the project. Through workshops, public seminars and publications both for academic and wider audiences, we will be able to take our suggested practices to a wide cross-section of the community and help them develop their own customized approaches.