NYAB Event - “DUST, DIALOGUE & UNCERTAINTY: Slow Knowledge in Design Thinking and Practice” Exhibition

“DUST, DIALOGUE & UNCERTAINTY: Slow Knowledge in Design Thinking and Practice” Exhibition

Pratt Manhattan Gallery

This event has ended.

At a time when fast has become the default pace for many—from habits of material consumption to spatial, relational, and sensory experience—a new exhibition at Pratt Manhattan Gallery demonstrates how Slow knowledge can bring holistic, reflective, and critical perspectives to design. DUST, DIALOGUE & UNCERTAINTY: Slow Knowledge in Design Thinking and Practice is presented by Pratt Manhattan Gallery in collaboration with Netherlands-based design research platform slowLab. The exhibition is curated by slowLab director Carolyn Strauss and programming director Ana Paula Pais.

The exhibition will feature works by international artists that relate to six core topics of Slow knowledge: identity, agency, governance, economy, ecology, and pedagogy. For each of the topics, there is a proposed set of tools and simple strategies that creative practitioners can incorporate into their work and process. Works in the exhibition include the following:

“Metronome” (2005) by Monika Hoinkis – While a traditional metronome dictates a beat to be followed, “Metronome” keeps time to the rhythm of a nearby person. Displayed on a pedestal, “Metronome” uses a pendulum rod to track anyone who comes within a few feet of it. The individual then becomes the purveyor of tempo, enhancing awareness and accountability for one’s presence.

“Dirty Cookies” (2014) by Julia Mandle – This project probes people’s attitudes about the dirt under their feet. The artist hosted a “Dirty Cookies” party with Pratt Institute students, faculty, and members of the local community that involved collecting soil samples from diverse New York City neighborhoods to discuss, analyze, and make a batch of local dirt cookies, prompting them to consider, “Is the soil in my area good enough to eat?” Their collective impressions, observations, and results from soil tests inform the “Dirty Cookies” display that will stand in the Pratt Manhattan Gallery.

“Moving Meshes” (2008) by Maria Blaisse – The artist wove together thin, pliable stalks of bamboo to make flexible, responsive structures that breathe and move in direct resonance with their environment. The mesh forms change their behavior when animated by human touch or inhabited by a human body. Blaisse’s material explorations and the kinetic potentials they unleash demonstrate a Slow vision for intimacy with the rest of the world. Two of Blaisse’s mesh forms will be included in the exhibition along with an accompanying film by Jellie Dekker that shows the bamboo forms in full, dynamic motion.