The Slow

Report
Meet a new breed of consumer who values their
health, environment and community over outdated
notions of success like wealth and power

41 Pages Autumn 2015

Publisher The Slow Report
William Rowe
will@prote.in
Today many of us live increasingly fast-paced
Editor lifestyles. We work hard, play hard and stay
Maks Fus Mickiewicz
switched on 24/7. But for many early adopters
maks@prote.in
being busy is no longer a badge of honour.
Art Director
Rosa van Heusden They’re choosing to spend more time with friends
and family instead of working a 100 hour week,
Editor-at-Large
Sarah Pearson
and saving for a holiday over a new car.

Our Slow Report briefing looks at why there’s

Staff Writer
Alex Moore been this shift away from traditional metrics of
success to a new set of values where factors like
Designer
Josiah Jones health, relationships and the environment come
first and foremost.
Editorial Assistant
Lucy Watson Be it food, travel, design, fashion, technology
or TV, fast is no longer better.
Writers
Anna Burzlaff, Wessie Du Toit

Photography Maks Fus Mickiewicz, Editor

Michèle Côté, Maria Lisogorskaya,
Diogo Lopes www.prote.in

Illustration
Tom Deason

For enquiries please contact:

sales@prote.in
 Contents

11

4
Time Is The
New Luxury
Why the cult of speed is
grinding to a halt

9
15 Stress-Busting
Mindful Tech
Gadgets that promise to make

11 you a better person

Living The
Out Of Office Dream
Make miserable Mondays
a thing of the past

15
How To Assemble A
Kick-Ass Collective
25 Assemble present its

21
community-driven manifesto

It’s Time To End

Planned Obsolescence
Meet the designers
reinventing the wheel

25
Saving The Fashion
Industry From Itself
Industry insiders are turning the
37
31 industry inside out

Millennials Are Hungry

For Change
Why Slow Food is now
the order of the day

37
Channelling The Slow
Sit back, relax and indulge in
reams of dreamy footage
 Time Is The New Luxury
Words by Maks Fus Mickiewicz

• he cult of speed is slowly

T
grindi
ng to a halt
• Often there is a taboo
“
against slowing down”

43% would strongly support

a 35-hour working week

72% said they found their current

work-life balance stressful

S ince the 1900s there have been many predictions about

what the future of the workplace will look like. One of the
most prevalent, supported by everyone from economist
John Maynard Keynes to philosopher Bertrand Russell, was that
by the turn of the century we’d have a four or even three-day
working week.
But while, thanks to major advances in technology, we produce
more food than anytime in human history and many of the tasks
industrialisation first demanded of us can now be roboticised,
somehow, this utopian ideal hasn’t materialised.
Instead, the vision of the future workplace seems to be rather
more dystopian. Take The New York Times report on online retail
giant Amazon, which included accounts of people repeatedly
crying at their desks due to data-driven management that valued
their worth at cost per minute.
For a long time the alternative, a Slow lifestyle, has been seen
as the preserve of hippies. But more recently high profile CEOs
like Arianna Huffington have campaigned to bring terms like the
Third Metric into our common vocabulary. In short, putting
personal growth and wellbeing over building a CV or earning
a higher income is becoming the norm.
The message increasingly resonates with multiple audiences.
Of the 2000 people surveyed across the Protein Network for
our Slow Survey, 72% said they found their current work-life
balance stressful, and 43% would strongly support a
35-hour working week.
Some feel they’ve been pushed by their workplace to take
on more responsibilities due to a stagnant economy and
cost-cutting strategies. Others feel technology has created a
24/7 connected culture, which keeps them working outside of
nine to five, while pressuring them into living an unattainable
social lifestyle – typically classed by psychologists as FoMO
(Fear of Missing Out).
More often than not, however, it is the combination of
both workplace pressure and overconnectedness that is
driving people over the edge.

Page 4 Protein — The Slow Report

 The Good Life
“A lot of people feel like they’ve been thrown onto the treadmill
and have to keep up the pace,” says Nathan Williams, who
left a career at financial titan Goldman Sachs to create
Kinfolk magazine in 2011. Today, the quarterly Slow lifestyle
publication has a 1 million strong following on social media, 56% of participants are increasingly trying to
made up of 25-35 year old creatively minded professionals, disconnect from technology whenever they can
like designers, editors and entrepreneurs.
Kinfolk gatherings – meals with friends that encourage sharing
and spending time together – have (for want of a better word) Some workplaces are beginning to recognise the need to
also gone viral, with events around the world in 25 different bring mindfulness to the workplace. But many employees
locations, from Auckland to Oslo – proof that millennials aspire are already taking matters into their own hands, breaking
to be a part of the Slow lifestyle online, as well as take real free of the office and living the ‘out of office’ dream. Read
action and engage with offline events. our startups feature, (see page 10), to find out why
For Williams, Kinfolk’s fan base is growing thanks to a new entrepreneurs and freelancers increasingly prefer a dip in
generation who want to improve their quality of life as well as the pool to the watercooler moment.
the communities around them. “They’ve realised that with a “Often there’s a taboo against slowing down,” says Honoré,
little mindfulness and active participation they can step away referring to senior executives’ attitudes. “There is a culture
from that cycle and take back control of their time and how they of silence. They’re scared about selling it to the board, or
want to spend it,” he explains. “More people want to find ways what shareholders will think. They even worry about using
to bring meaning and intention back into their lives.” the word ‘Slow’. But once they get over that fear they start
taking steps and finding it’s not that scary.”
Working Nine To Five
The pressure isn’t just from one demographic though –
boomers, millennials and the elderly are all shifting towards
a less stressful way of living.
“Fifteen years ago the interest in Slow living was from very
small groups, like businessmen hovering between heart attack
one and heart attack two,” says Carl Honoré, the author of
In Praise of Slow, whose mission it is to educate everyone from
college students to advertising executives about the benefits of
taking it easy. “Now everyone feels overwhelmed, overwrought
and over connected.”
Increasing stress in the workplace is a huge contributor to this
overarching change in attitude to slow living. Forty-one percent
of those surveyed now strongly agree their mental wellbeing
is more important than their income – a far cry from the
‘loadsamoney!’ attitude of the 1980s, or the excessive levels
of conspicuous consumption pre-crash in 2008.

Page 5 Protein — The Slow Report

Above: Kinfolk includes photo essays, interviews and
practical tips for young professionals who want to live
the Slow lifestyle

Opposite: Nathan Williams is the founder of Kinfolk

and director of Ouur; a lifestyle publisher and agency
with its own Slow fashion label

Page 6 Protein — The Slow Report


“The fastest way to
a good lifestyle is
to slow down”
Page 7
82% of participants think they spend
too much time online
Switching Off
Of all the drivers pushing people to change gear and live life in
the slow lane, the most powerful is technology. Smartphones
and social networks, which tap into our urge to consistently
connect, have been blamed for everything from breaking up
relationships to causing attention deficit disorder.
In particular, technology is the biggest factor pushing
millennials to refocus their lifestyles. Our findings show 82%
of participants think they spend too much time online, and
56% of participants are increasingly trying to disconnect from
technology whenever they can.
But most Slow advocates aren’t so much against technology as
the digital habits we’ve become accustomed to. “Technology has
fed into some of our baser appetites and our natural affliction
for instant gratification,” says Honoré. “But I wouldn’t say that’s
the fault of technology. The problem is the way we use it.”
It seems consumers are also well aware of this as well. In fact,
65% of participants in our Slow Survey actually want products
that help them achieve a Slow lifestyle. And startups are
listening up. In our piece on mindful tech (see page 08) we look
at the various innovations that promise to lower stress levels by
measuring everything from your heart rate to your brain waves.
“I think all of us intuitively recognise that digital connection has
a negative impact on human connection,” says Kate Unsworth,
founder and CEO of Kovert Designs, which aims to make
tech that will provoke us to be ‘more human’. “Technology is
supposed to fit into a certain quadrant of our lives rather than
being all encompassing.”
Protein — The Slow Report
 Fading Materialism
The biggest change across all demographics is a huge shift in
the metrics that now determine success and a good quality of
life. Our survey shows 96% now value experiences over material
goods. They’ve chosen to priorities their long-term mental
wellbeing over short-term goals.
In short, time is the new luxury. Boasting about a £130,000
Richard Mille watch or the hours you put in over the weekend
are no longer seen as a badge of honour. Sharing photos of
your three-week holiday binge in Bali on Instagram and doing
absolutely nothing on a bank holiday are in.
“The fastest way to a good lifestyle is to slow down,” says Geir
Berthelsen, founder of The World Institute of Slowness, a think-
tank that challenges brands, companies and people to be smarter
not faster. “We have to recognise time for ourselves is a luxury
that we shouldn’t forget.”
Honoré is also quick to point out that for most human beings
slowing down isn’t just aspirational, but a real need. “There are
only so many hours in the day,” he comments. “The human body
can only be awake for so many hours and I think we’re up against
the limit of that.”
Page 8
The pressure for the Slow Movement first began with individual
groups focusing on niche topics, like food or travel. But today it’s
a far more encompassing philosophy that touches on everything
from holistic thinking to sustainability.
And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Slow Movement is being
embraced by everyone from politicians to greengrocers.
“There are different drivers for different groups,” comments
Honoré. “But the general pace of culture is roadrunner; it’s
too fast. We have to relearn the art of saying ‘no’.”
Opposite: Kate Unsworth is the founder of Kovert
Designs, a mindful tech company that produces
smart jewellery like the Altruis bracelet
Below: Geir Berthelsen is head of the think tank
The World Institute of Slowness, which encourages
brands to rethink fast-paced work culture
Protein — The Slow Report
 Stress-Busting Mindful Tech
Words by Lucy Watson
• 30% of British GPs refer patients
for mindfulness-based treatment
• “How different would your life be
if you could become more relaxed”
L ife seems to get more stressful every day. Smartphone
addiction is rife and we’re often in a state of anxiety.
We panic when the Wi-Fi is down and get woken up by
push notifications with bad news from apps we don’t use.
But 2015 is the year the solution has come to our attention:
mindfulness is the cure, and consumers are looking for evermore
ways to incorporate it into their daily lives.
However, that doesn’t have to just mean more yoga. In fact,
65% of respondents to our Slow Survey want products that help
them achieve a slow lifestyle. Wearable devices, like Spire,
Muse and Melomind, which alter our state of mind for the better,
are in high demand.
More technology might seem like a counterintuitive measure
for our already tech-filled lives. But these devices, which monitor
or alter bio-signals such as brain waves, have a unique selling
point – they turn the always-on, 24/7 culture to always-mindful,
with minimum effort.
Spire, for example, is a small, Bluetooth connected clip-on that
tracks your breathing and sends notifications to your phone if
it thinks you need a little time out. In practice it’s not nearly as
strange an idea as you think.
“Awareness of one’s respiration is the fundamental technique
of mindfulness,” says Neema Moraveji, co-founder of tech
Page 9
start-up Spire. “Technology pervades our life. Mindfulness is
an opportunity to bring presence to any aspect of life. Spire can
help you make this a reality.”
The benefits of mindfulness are undisputed. Thirty percent of
British GPs now refer patients for mindfulness-based treatment
for everything from anxiety through to drug addiction.
Even the organisations that produce the stress are
simultaneously reducing it, with banks, law firms and even the
US military now offering mindfulness sessions for their staff.
“Meditation has been around thousands of years,” comments
Andrew Persaud of Toronto-based Muse, whose products
offer an update on an age-old practice. “But recently we have
seen over a thousand articles talking about mindfulness and
meditation and it’s impact.”
It’s true these devices don’t do mindfulness for you –
technology hasn’t quite got that far – but what they can achieve
is help users along.
“Now more than ever people are trying to enhance their daily
lives with external substances like caffeine, stimulants and
narcotics – sometimes leaving them worse off than they were
before,” explains Isy Goldwasser, Thync’s CEO. “How different
would your life be if you could become more relaxed or more
energised in minutes, using the power of your own mind?”
Protein — The Slow Report
 Spire
An unobtrusive device that clips easily to
a waistband or bra strap, Spire tracks your
breathing patterns, sensing when you’re
becoming stressed. You’ll get notifications
each day with respiratory exercises and
mini-meditation sessions, which lower
blood pressure, reduce tension and just Muse
make your day a little bit better. Meditating properly is hard – how do
you even begin to stop thinking? Muse
is a tool that makes it just that bit more
achievable, by monitoring your brain
signals and providing feedback to a
Bluetooth-linked device to tell you how
you’re doing, whilst creating a calming,
soothing soundtrack.

Lifeclock
Apple Watch users can use the Lifeclock
app ¬to calculate their life expectancy.
Simply add or subtract the time spent
on positive or negative pursuits. It might
sound thoroughly depressing, but it
most definitely convinces you to spend
a little more time thinking about your
actions in the present and the future.

Thync
Taking the form of a pretty sci-fi
looking headpiece, Thync employs
neurosignaling to send low-level
electronic pulses – what they call ‘vibes’
– to stimulate the nervous system.
Depending on what vibe you’re feeling,
these can be used to either provide a
calming influence, or a shot of energy.

Melomind
Employing cutting-edge research from
the Brain and Spine Institute in Paris,
Melomind is a Bluetooth connected
headset that uses neurofeedback in the
form of audiovisuals to monitor brain
activity. It acts as a relaxation coach,
with regular 15-minute sessions that
aim to reduce overall stress levels.

Page 10 Protein — The Slow Report

 A new group of entrepreneurial 19-35-year-olds are
blurring the boundaries between work and play.
They’re swapping the office for the poolside and
flat whites for fresh juices.
Partly it’s thanks to turbo-charged broadband connections
as well as digital tools like Slack and Skype, which have
made it easier to keep in sync around the globe, live out
escapist fantasies and soothe the nerves of clients. But,

Live The Out Of it’s also due to demands for a healthy lifestyle.

Office Dream Our Slow Survey findings show 91% of millennials consider
their mental health more important than their income, and
Words by Anna Burzlaff 52% freely admit they think living in a city is too fast paced.
In short, working 9-5 in an office is no longer aspirational:
• Working 9-5 in an a fact which has helped fuel the rise of a new culture of
office is no longer co-working holidays that provide a space not just to work

aspirational and play, but also to exchange ideas and collaborate.

“This group are always connected, they are independent
• “Meet like-minded and they want to see the world,” explains Liz Elam, founder
of Link Coworking in Austin, Texas, and executive producer
people, have dinner of the Global Coworking Unconference Conference.
with them or surf” “Why not combine all three?”
Now there are a host of new startups that cater to this
travelling professional. Think hotel rooms that double as
conference spaces, surf holidays that are also networking
events, and platforms that ensure your start-up-launch-
cum-beach-trip is only a click away.

Opposite: Surf Office wants visitors to take it

easy and enjoy its beach co-working spaces
located in Gran Canaria, Lisbon and Santa Cruz

Page 11 Protein — The Slow Report

Page 12 Protein — The Slow Report
 Surf Office

“I guess the most attractive thing about Surf Office

is the community and the lifestyle behind the

concept,” explains founder Peter Fabor. “You come

to a new place where you meet like-minded people,

have dinner with them or surf.”

The ethos is simple: make visitors happy so they

can achieve more. And with houses in Santa Cruz,

Gran Canaria and most recently Lisbon, Surf Office

is blazing a trail for co-working holidays, be they

for a freelancer or a start-up.

“For our body and mind it is much more pleasant

to divide a day into work and leisure time blocks.

For instance, after 3 hours of work you do some

sport or have a long walk,” says Fabor. “You

work the same number of hours but you’re more

productive and happier.”

Nomad House

“We are 100% focused on communities,” says

Arthur Itey, founder of Nomad House, explaining

the principle behind his brand. “We believe that

this is how travel will evolve.”

Itey started Nomad House in February this year

with the hope that the company will become a

low-cost network of houses around the world for

digital nomads to live and work in.

The first Nomad House is in Ubud, Bali. But there

are plans to open more in Berlin, London, Bangkok,

and Chiang Mai. Itey wants the Nomad House

model to develop to the point where anyone can set

up their own co-living house as long as it adheres

to a certain set of requirements.

Members can pay a monthly fee, which includes

accommodation, amenities, and – perhaps most

importantly – social activities, like monthly

meet-ups with local startup communities.

“The next generation no longer want a mega-

corporation job for the next 20 years,” he says.

“We hate commitment. For us commitment sounds

like our life is already done.”

Page 13 Protein — The Slow Report

 Zoku

Based in Amsterdam, Zoku classes itself as a

neighbourhood for global nomads. The hotel offers

lofts designed by Dutch studio Concrete, with

features that are adaptable to their user’s needs –

from an elevated sleeping area to a sliding door

hiding a fully equipped kitchen.

“As boundaries between living and working are

fading, home-office spaces are a logical next

step,” explain Hans Meyer and Marc Jongerius co-

founders of the brand. “Zoku is a multi-functional

option where you can find everything you need to

live comfortably and work efficiently.”

Zoku’s staff also organise small events,

workshops and gatherings around social and

business themes, as well as inviting guest speakers

to talk on a range of topics. There’s even an app

that allows neighbours to talk, arrange meetings,

and explore what’s happening in Amsterdam.

“We’re focused on actively providing global

nomads with a local social life,” say Meyer and

Jongerius. “Living comfortably, working efficiently,

meeting like-minded people, getting connected

to local networks, and eliminating ‘dead time’ is

important to them.”

Page 14 Protein — The Slow Report


How To Assemble
A Kick-Ass
Collective
Words by Wessie Du Toit
Photos by Diogo Lopes
• rchitects shun hierarchy
A Clerkenwell Road.
for joint decision making
• No one can fire anyone
“ running a bar, programming films and that kind of stuff.” In an
because we’re all friends”
Page 15
T he concrete no-man’s land that divides East London
and the Olympic Village is not an attractive, fashionable,
or even very accessible place for an architecture and
design studio. But that makes it all the more fitting for the
headquarters of Assemble, a young collective who have built
their reputation on finding witty and resourceful answers to
imperfect situations, often in landscapes just like this.
With their open, collaborative, project-by-project approach,
Assemble have turned a lack of experience into their greatest
asset, and given people a new degree of involvement in
designing the spaces they will use. And now they are not
only securing major commissions such as a new gallery for
Goldsmiths University, but have also achieved suitably unusual
recognition with a nomination for Britain’s top contemporary
art award, the Turner Prize.
Assemble is composed of fourteen individuals, all still in
their twenties, and incorporates members from very different
backgrounds. It first came together in 2010 around a group of
disillusioned architectural assistants who wanted to get out and
build something. That turned out to be the Cineroleum,
a makeshift cinema in the shell of a disused petrol station on
Two of the founding members, Alice Edgerley and Matt Leung,
explain how the collective was forged in this venture. “The
project wasn’t an architecture project,” says Leung. “It was about
all-hands-on-deck atmosphere, everyone merged into the fabric
of the team.
Assemble’s early work continued with the theme of using
inexpensive materials to conjure surprising designs in tricky
urban spaces. Many were temporary, although beside their
Stratford workspace they have a monument to this methodology
in the form of the Yardhouse, a simple wooden-framed structure
whose façade of mottled tiles has drawn the city’s selfie-brigade
en masse to this unlikely grey landscape.
With their range of skills the team soon became dizzyingly
versatile, and in the last five years have worked on performance
venues, workshops and town squares, as well as more artistic
projects such as the Brutalist Playground they installed at the
Royal Institute of British Architects earlier this year.
Protein — The Slow Report
Page 16 Protein — The Slow Report
Assemble has no hierarchy, but the chaos of joint decision-
making is compensated for by emotional support and the quality
of ideas. “It’s probably one thing that’s absent from most offices,
the idea that everyone has an input,” says Edgerley. “It also
means no one can fire anyone, because we’re all friends.”
Naturally, as the operation has grown, it has been a challenge
for the group to maintain its spontaneous energy – especially as
everyone has to make a living. “The thing that we’re trying to do
now is find the way that we can all work in gainful employment
in the same way that we started working together when we were
doing it for fun,” explains Leung. “We don’t have loads of younger
people to do all the work for us.”
Assemble’s answer to this problem is what it affectionately
terms the ‘buddy system’, where each project is run by at least
two members, but is opened-up to the rest of the group for
ideas and criticisms at weekly ‘Pan-Assemble’ meetings. Each “If you have people enthusiastic and involved from the beginning,
individual works on a freelance basis, keeping half the fee for and taking some ownership of it, then it means that they’re going
the projects they do and putting the other half back into the to be happy with it,” points out Edgerley. And happy they are,
collective, which pays for some members to do admin roles. not least in Toxteth, Liverpool, where Assemble’s work with the
Assemble is so determined to keep its diverse structure residents of Granby Four Streets housing estate brought their
because this has given it its edge, especially as it has moved unexpected Turner Prize shortlisting.
into public-realm projects where understanding the needs of The Toxteth project illustrates how far beyond the cosmetic
communities is essential. Non-architect members of the team Assemble are willing to go. They are, for instance, in the process
undertake months-long consultations, working with local of setting up a business manufacturing household goods, so
activist groups to get the public involved in testing ideas and embedding a legacy of craft and ensuring residents receive
even in construction. material benefits from the Turner nomination. “We’re just one
part of the project,” says Edgerley. “Even though it’s an incredibly
desolate area, the community spirit there is really amazing.”
This ability to nurture a sense of self-determination in
communities is the key to Assemble’s success. They are not
reluctant to concede power over the design process – that is their
strategy. “It’s about asking for help as well,” says Leung. “In most
“Understanding the projects it seems like the architect or designer is not in the best
needs of communities position to work out what all the answers are.”

is essential”

Page 17 Protein — The Slow Report

 Fran Edgerley

“We’re just kind of learning as we go along no matter

what our background is,” says Fran Edgerley, who

came to Assemble with wide interests, from design

and fabrication to philosophy and psychology. Her

work has included technical drawings, building

furniture and organisational development in

communities. Currently she’s working in Liverpool

helping to establish a manufacturing business,

Granby Workshop, which will ensure that residents

see long-term benefits from the Turner Prize

nominated project. “There’s a lot of love, a lot of

mutual respect,” she says, describing how the

collective works. “We give each other a lot of

emotional support when things are difficult, and

quite often they are.”

Portrait by Maria Lisogorskaya

Page 18 Protein — The Slow Report

At a time when austerity is fuelling so much rhetoric about
the need for resourcefulness, efficiency, and community
responsibility, could Assemble’s collaborative approach hold
any lessons for planning policy? Their methods certainly have
a ‘big society’ ring to them.
“It’s a more gradual percolation into working out how people
who have power should actually look at cities,” suggests
Leung. He does, however, wonder if Assemble’s story exposes
shortcomings in public architecture. “It’s amazing that, 50
years ago or so, local authorities employed some of the best
architects. That kind of opportunity just doesn’t happen
anymore. So having to create this opportunity ourselves, carve
it out with our free time and unpaid effort. There’s a description
of the failure of conventional architecture there architecture
not being thought of in the bigger, social context.”

Louis Schulz

One of Assemble’s earliest projects was

the Cineroleum, a temporary project that

transformed a disused petrol station into a fully

functioning cinema. Louis Schulz was recruited

to help with the audiovisual equipment, although

this wasn’t his profession. “It was just something

I did in my spare time,” he says. “I was kind of on

the party scene.” He designed a sound-system

from scratch for the group’s second urban

theatrical project, Folly for a Flyover, and also

built Assemble’s Instagram sensation –

a workspace known as the Yardhouse – together

with one other member and a small team of

tradesmen. He’s now involved in a project to

update architect Walter Segal’s famous method

of swift and simple construction.

Portrait by Michèle Côté

Page 19 Protein — The Slow Report

 Amica Dall

Trying to pin down the way Assemble works

is a wild goose chase according to Amica Dall.

“We all do different stuff constantly,” she says.

When she first started she ran a mobile cinema

at documentary festivals and took care of

programming and licensing for the Cineroleum

project. That quickly changed though. “People

started asking me to do all sorts of other stuff,

and eventually I was just there all the time

helping.” Since, she’s been instrumental in the

group’s community work, especially during

two years working on Assemble’s adventure

playground in Dalmarnock, Glasgow. “That

was my baby,” she says.

Portrait by Diogo Lopes

Page 20 Protein — The Slow Report

 It’s Time To End
Planned Obsolescence
Words by Maks Fus Mickiewicz

• inety-four percent want products

N
that last for decades not years
• 
“What if the Wi-Fi chip breaks?
Do we throw away the entire thing?”

Page 21 Protein — The Slow Report

Left: Studio Ayaskan’s pots expand as the
plants inside them grow
Below: Jake Dyson aims to battle obsolescence
with a light bulb that lasts for decades
H ow much technology have you thrown away in your life?
Let’s be honest here, you’ve probably chucked at least
one smartphone or laptop away for an upgrade, or at
least left a shell lying to dust under the bed.
Up until now this cycle has been relatively inconsequential.
Manufacturers wanted consumers to buy their latest product,
and there’s been strong demand for new features and upgrades
resulting in a win-win market driven by cheap, disposable goods.
Today, however, consumers are far more aware of
environmental issues. In our recent survey we found that 94%
want products that last for decades not years.
Partly it’s down to greater awareness. Various media outlets
are voicing concerns about environmental issues and educating
consumers on the damage electronic products like these – as
well as a great number of others – do to the ecosystem.
But it’s also because today’s 18-35 year olds are experiencing
product overload. They’re tired of wardrobes full of clothes they
never wear and gadgets they don’t need. Put simply, they want
less, but of a much higher quality.
Page 22
“Sustainability is over.
It was traditional
guilt management from
the past”
Light Bulb Idea
A new generation of designers – the creative middlemen in this
process – are also sick of seeing product go to landfill (albeit,
perhaps for more selfish reasons). In response they’re future-
proofing their designs so that they’re environmentally friendly,
functional and, most importantly perhaps, damn good looking.
Take Jake Dyson, son of prolific inventor James. The London-
based designer has taken up the challenge of redesigning
not only a common household item but also one of planned
obsolescence’s most prolific enemies: the light bulb.
“I’m not interested in selling lights that last for several years,”
explains Dyson, stating his mission. “I want to sell lights that last
for 40 years.” (Typical lights have half that shelf life). His solution,
CSYS task lights, last longer thanks to LED downlights and an
effective cooling system.
“The overall life of the LED is reduced if they’re not thermally
managed correctly,” says Dyson. “We look at and analyse lighting,
and find ways to dramatically improve them with efficiency,
engineering and innovation. I think the performance and cooling
in the products we’ve created is outstanding.”
The lamp also won’t ‘droop’ after a few months – something that
happens due to springs and pivots that experience a lot of wear
and tear – due to a clever system, inspired by drawing boards,
and a good choice of materials.
Dyson’s long-term hope is that the technology him and his team
have created will be an inspiration to others in the industry to
follow by example and create high quality, long-lasting products.
Protein — The Slow Report
 The Bigger Picture
To some designing a new lamp might not seem like a big deal,
but for Slow Design advocates almost every product category
needs to be taken apart and rethought. “From where I sit now the
whole world needs to be redesigned,” says Head of SustainRCA
Clare Brass, whose task it is to help educate students working on
everything from automotive design to textiles.
For her, the motivation for designers embracing sustainability Left and below: design students at the Royal
is clear. “At a certain point you realise you’re just working at the College of Art working under the SustainRCA
initiative to create eco-friendly products
service of landfill,” she explains. “You’re just working to help your
clients to make more money by selling things that people are
going to buy and then throw away.”
Slow Design, by contrast, offers a potential way out for designers,
consumers and manufacturers eager to address interconnected
global issues, like rising CO2 levels and deforestation as well as
promote positive cultural and social projects.
In the paper The Slow Design Principles Carolyn F. Strauss and
Alastair Faud-Luke succinctly outline the philosophy’s benefits:
“Slow Design is a democratic and holistic design approach for
creating appropriately tailored solutions for the long-term well
being of people and the planet.”
It seems they’re not alone in their belief. Pressure is also coming
from the EU. The Consultative Commission on Industrial Change’s
mission statement is to promote ‘industrial ecology, ecodesign,
the functional economy and the circular economy’ with a view to
ending planned obsolescence and reducing the economic area’s
negative environmental impact.
Recently, the French government also made it a legal requirement
for manufacturers to declare how long their products will last, while
making it a standard requirement that all faulty products would be Young, Fresh & Green
either replaced or repaired for free within two years of purchase. The truth, however, is most of the action is at a grassroots level.
Real effective policy changes across the entire EU and USA
will take time, and most manufacturers and designers, be they
an established corporation or a fledgling startup, are taking
matters into their own hands.
One such inspirational story is the simple, but highly effective,
redesign of the humble plant pot. RCA graduates Bike and
Begum Ayaskan have created a product that evolves, as a plant
grows, so individual pots no longer have to be thrown away.
The design uses an origami structure that allows seedlings to
push contours out and expand the pot naturally.
Project like these, though small in scale, drive innovative
and experimentation at corporations like Nissan to Hitachi
who actively hunt down young graduates highly in tune with
environmental issues. “They want ideas, creativity, freshness
and positivity,” says Brass. “We’re going to have to employ a
million different product solutions, and they will depend on
who the product is for, what the technology is and how fast
it’s changing.”
Perhaps the most famous of these success stories is Google

Page 23 Protein — The Slow Report

Right: Phonebloks is a modular phone
designed by Dave Hakkens that avoids
e-waste with customisable hardware
Below: Growth pots are a clever solution
for time-poor urbanites
and Dave Hakkens’ collaboration on Project Ara. The project,
Phonebloks, originally started out as a video made in Hakkens’
final year of university, but the idea for a modular smartphone
frame, with components you can add, replace or takeaway,
touched a nerve – it now has over 21 million hits on Youtube.
Post Project Ara, Hakkens’ is looking to address wider
electronic waste. “The future is that all of our devices are
connected to the internet,” explains Hakkens. “A toaster, a
coffee machine, a television. What if, in any of these machines,
the Wi-Fi chip breaks? Do we throw away the entire thing?
What if we have one Wi-Fi chip and it works on everything?”
Page 24
Sustainability Is Over
Professor Michael Braungart, a former Greenpeace activist and
the author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make
Things, has a more sideways approach to the matter. “Instead of
trying to think of sustainable products or products that are going
to last, like a washing machine that lasts a hundred years, we
need to educate consumers,” he explains.
His overarching philosophy is to challenge negative assumptions
about humans impact on the environment. “It’s not about zero
waste,” he says, giving an example. “You still have to think about
waste. A washing machine can have a life of nine years, but why
don’t we make 60% of the components reusable and the glue
edible for enzymes.”
Ultimately, Braungart argues, we shouldn’t sell physical
products. Instead, he advocates a service economy where a
manufacturer owns all the individual components and people
simply rent a TV or laptop for a number of years.
It’s a philosophy that mirrors consumers’ recent change in
attitude to products – 96% of Slow Survey participants said they
value experiences over material goods – and the rise of
the sharing economy, where it’s more efficient to hire an Uber
than buy a car.
“You don’t consume a washing machine, you just use it,” says
Braungart. “You don’t consume a TV set, you only use a TV set.”
The actual materials in these devices, like glass and copper, can
be endlessly reused in other technical products – all people need
to buy is a service.
Though it might sound like a radical idea, it does make sense
from an economic, political, social and environmental perspective.
And, there’s also another positive message: “Sustainability is over,”
says Braungart. “It was traditional guilt management from the
past. Now it’s time we really reinvent things.”
Protein — The Slow Report
Above: Sumzine is a Slow magazine on
a mission to open up a dialogue about
change in the fashion industry

Page 25 Protein — The Slow Report

 T he garment industry is one of the biggest polluters
on the planet, second only to oil. In fact it accounts
for 10% of the world’s total global carbon emissions –
a statistic few designers would decide to emblazon on a T-shirt.
Sweatshop conditions haven’t got much better either.
Two years after the Rana Plaza disaster – in which a garment
factory collapse resulted in the deaths of over a 1,000 workers
– the Guardian reported that ‘forced overtime, unsanitary

Saving The Fashion
Industry From Itself
Words by Lucy Watson
• There is no pride
“ roots level – Benetton recently awarded €1.1 million to the
in selling a garment
for $15”
conditions, and denial of paid maternity leave’ are still rife.
Ten years ago it was easy to ‘hide’ this dirty side of the
business through crisis PR, and drown out bad press with
slick advertising campaigns. But today’s consumers are more
connected then ever before, and action happens at a grass
Rana Plaza compensation fund after pressure from a petition
with over a million signatories on campaigning site Avaaz.
Members of the Protein Audience Network are clearly on

• 2% want companies

9 the same wavelength. Given the chance a huge 93% would
buy ethical products. There’s a change in attitude and
totally transparent mindset; hemp is no longer the preserve of hippies in Bristol or
supply chains San Francisco. And, in addition, industry leaders like Stella
McCartney and Vivienne Westwood are doing their best
to raise more awareness.
“Our reader is someone who is in love with fashion as a
means to be creative, but is sick of pushing the dark side of
the industry to the back of her head,” explains Jamie Ortega,
founder of slow fashion magazine Sumzine. The attitude of
its fan base could be described as verging on militant. The
same people who read Sumzine are highly likely to have
crowdfunded it via a Kickstarter campaign with the slogan
‘change the fashion industry’.
For this group what Karl Lagerfeld decides to do for
Chanel’s latest cruise collection is neither here nor there…
unless, that is, it looks good, and feels ethical too.

Page 26 Protein — The Slow Report


Industry Insiders
“It’s about the future of the planet,” says Maxine Bédat,
founder of New York-based eco-fashion label Zady, explaining
the appeal of a green mindset to the next generation of
consumers. “We’re millennials. We’re the ones most impacted,
so we’re the ones that have to move ‘sustainable’ from fringe
to the new normal.”
For years boomers talked about global warming being the
next generations problem, but now that same generation have
grown up, and they’re taking action. Day to day this might
be about making ethical purchases, but for others it’s about
closing gaps in the market and reinventing the industry from
the inside out.
With high demand for ethically produced clobber there’s
also greater opportunity for forward-thinking entrepreneurs.
Wool and the Gang, a London-based knitwear company,
take consumers desire for radical transparency and ethical
production to the next level. Its only material ‘wool’ is natural,
renewable and biodegradable. Worried about sweatshop
conditions? Knit the jumper yourself.
It might seem like a twee idea, better suited to OAPs
with more time on their hands, but Wool’s ‘gang’ includes
supermodel Cara Delevigne and editor of Love magazine
Katie Grand. And, the process might take a hell of a lot longer
than picking up a Primark jumper, but therein lies the appeal:
the slow movement is about taking more time on better
clothes instead of replacing them at every change of season.
Page 27
Below: Zady wants customers to see every
step of the supply chain, from ranchers to
washers to dyers
Of course, some independent labels are well ahead of the
game. ‘Don’t Buy This Shirt Unless You Need It’ is the somewhat
contradictory mantra that’s made Patagonia one of the
world’s leading outdoor clothing brands. It’s marketing team
spearheads campaigns that align with its core environmental
values – like saving the American Snake River. While its
message to customers is to wear their clothes till they’re ripped
at the seams.
It’s latest target? The most ubiquitous item of clothing in
the world: good old blue jeans. “Traditional denim is a filthy
business,” says Helena Barbour, Patagonia’s business unit
director, whose new alternative fabric cuts the amount of water
needed in the production of cotton by 84%.
“We wanted to find an alternative solution to using the standard
indigo dyeing methods,” she says. “It took several years of
research, innovation, trial and error, but the result is a new path
for denim.” The real pay back for these brands might not come
in the next season or year – but the value in terms of research,
development and marketing is huge.
Protein — The Slow Report
Right: Wool and the Gang encourage their
customers to knit their own jumpers and scarfs

“The cause is
to never throw
anything into the
ocean again”

Slow vs Fast
Big businesses usually accused of painting China’s rivers
pink are also joining the eco-brigade, a little at a time, driven
by consumers who want radical change, fast. Of those surveyed
we found 92% want brands to invest in a zero carbon future.
Fast fashion mega-corporation H&M is doing its best to meet
this expectation, balancing cheap, disposable fashion, with
a green capsule collection, renewable energy policy and a
recycling programme.
“Our customers are increasingly showing an interest in
sustainability, and we want them to feel confident that
everything they buy from us is produced with respect for people
and the environment,” explains H&M’s CEO Karl-Johan Persson.
“To build a more sustainable fashion future, our industry needs
to keep finding new ways of using resources as responsibly and
efficiently as possible.”
The truth, however, is that for most brands of this scale,
who’ve been driving mass-produced product to the high
street for decades – shifting gear to a sustainable, closed-loop
production cycle is like trying to slam the breaks down on a
monster truck going at hell-bent speed. It’s easier to rip up
production completely and start again.
That hasn’t stopped many from trying though. G-Star Raw’s
latest RAW for the Oceans project kills two birds with one stone
(not literally), by producing sustainable denim, while using yarn
made from discarded plastic that usually ends up in the food
chain, damaging marine life, fish and birds. G-Star also got
Pharrell Williams to front the campaign.
“Fashion is certainly a huge part of everybody’s lives,” says
Williams, who is also the creative director and co-founder of
environmental label Bionic Yarn. “We are trying to infiltrate
the entire spectrum of fashion, high-end and low. It’s a part
of sustainability and the cause is to never throw anything into
the ocean again.”
As if that wasn’t enough, RAW for the Oceans also got ‘street
cred’ from Parley for the Oceans, a global charity that raises
awareness of the damage that waste is doing to our ocean
ecosystems. The campaign won the Grand Prix for Product
Design at Cannes Lions, and got huge amounts of press
coverage from everyone from style bible i-D to mass-market
tabloid The Daily Mail.
While these projects are literally a drop in the ocean compared
to H&M and G-Star’s main collections, they have a huge impact
with an audience who are crying out for a new approach.

Page 28 Protein — The Slow Report

Above: Patagonia built its entire marketing
campaign around people wearing their clothes
until they fall apart

Page 29 Protein — The Slow Report

 Less Is More
Part of the reality of Slow, however, is not buying more each
season – fashion’s current default setting – but buying a curated
selection that will last much longer and of a higher quality.
“We’re looking for things that feel real and grounded and that’s
where slow fashion fits in,” says Bédat. “It’s about people,
it’s about process, and it’s about doing the right thing, feeling
good about how and what we consume.”
Zady and Wool and the Gang’s manifestos, which are all about
letting the customer know exactly where what you’re buying
has come from, ties in to consumers’ desire to value a product
not only on the materials and cut but the positive or negative
environmental and social impact. A manifesto that our audience
clearly support; 92% want brands to be totally transparent
with their supply chain.
“Technology has allowed consumers to be more informed in
a number of ways. Not only can you shop using certain apps,
but you can now also research the ethics of different retailers,”
says Ortega. “There is no pride in selling any garment for $15.
Someone was cheated, hurt or disrespected for that to be
made ‘affordably’.” Consumers are realising this now more Above: Knitting might not seem ‘cool’,

than ever. but Wool and the Gang’s supporters include

Cara Delevigne and Katie Grand
But there’s also another factor that’s close to the industries
heart. “A lot of the fashion crowd are simply exhausted by
the velocity of fast fashion,” explains Ortega. “They see all
of the work that goes into creating and recreating, and find
empowerment in just dressing for their best self in lieu of
seasonal trends.”

“Traditional
denim is a filthy
business”

Page 30 Protein — The Slow Report


Millennials Are
Hungry For Change
Words by Alex Moore
• cDonald’s saw its
M and uncertainty. Food waste remains a huge problem,
global earnings fall
by 30% in 2014
• People are interested
“ transported is under scrutiny. Sixty-seven percent of those
in the process by which
food comes about”
Page 31
T he Slow Food movement began in earnest in Italy
in 1986 – the aim was to make a stand against fast
food, industrial food production and globalisation.
It’s founder Carlo Petrini – named by the Guardian in 2008
as one of 50 people who could save the planet – was tipped
over the edge by McDonald’s plans to open a restaurant near
the Spanish Steps in Rome. His hope? To defend regional
traditions, good food, gastronomic pleasures and a slow
pace of life.
Since then, organic produce has cemented its place on
supermarket shelves, farmer’s markets have popped up in
every half-gentrified neighbourhood, and any restaurant
worth its salt sources its ingredients from within a mile or
two. The principles of Slow have established themselves in
mainstream food culture.
Yet it still feels like the industry is plagued with controversy
while increasingly the resources with which to make food are
becoming ever more precious and scarce.
Everything from the design of food to the way it’s
we surveyed strongly supported a ban on unnecessary
supermarket packaging, while 89% of participants want
locally sourced food over imported produce.
Slow Food has evolved in response. “I see it as a force
for changing our current food system to one that is
healthier for people and for the planet,” says Marion Nestle,
the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies,
and Public Health at New York University, and author of
Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning).
“Food companies used to be able to dismiss demands for
healthier and more sustainable food as privileged, elitist,
and non-representative, but the movement has now grown
to the point where it is mainstream.”
Protein — The Slow Report
 Soylent is a ready-to-drink formula that delivers
all the nutrients you need in one neat, easily
digestible package

Page 32 Protein — The Slow Report

 Above: Rob Rhinehart, the founder of
Wake and Shake Soylent, says his long-term goal is to
bio-engineer a strain of algae that can
One futuristic Slow Food solution that seems to be gaining
produce the supplement
momentum is Rob Rhinehart’s liquid meal replacement.
Soylent started life (thanks to being the most funded food-
related crowd-funding project ever, raising over $3 million)
as a daily powdered meal that meets all the nutritional
requirements for an average adult.
Having received a further $20 million in Series A round
funding, Rhinehart is about to unveil Soylent 2.0, which he
eventually aims to produce entirely out of a super organism
derived from a strain of algae that only requires air, sun and
water. The reasoning? Rhinehart envisions a world where “
We need to change our
there won’t be a need for farms or factories, and therefore way of eating to support
resource wars or a food crisis.
French chemistry professor Hervé This, regarded as the
every part of the
founding father of molecular gastronomy, also wants us landscape – we need to
to abandon heritage celeriac and the like, in favour of its cook with the whole farm”
constituent parts – glucose, sucrose, cellulose, amino acids
and more. He champions ‘note-by-note cooking’, which
involves designing food from pure chemical compounds –
Heston Blumenthal eat your heart out.
“We read cookery books, we watch food programmes,
we have more leisure time than ever, yet we feel time and
cash poor,” says Shane Holland, Executive Chairman at
Slow Food UK. Projects like those proposed by This and
Rhinehart might seem radical, but they provide a sustainable
and scalable product which addresses key issues like mass
production and distribution.

Page 33 Protein — The Slow Report

 Meat Isn’t Murder
In vitro (victimless) meat has also become a more realistic
everyday foodstuff. One startup in particular, Beyond Meat,
has created a meat alternative good enough to tempt devout
carnivores. It aligns soy and pea proteins to mimic meaty
texture, without antibiotics, hormones, or transfats.
Its ‘chicken’ strips and taco ‘beef ‘ crumble hit the market
last year. And PETA named Beyond Meat its company of the
year, while investors such as Bill Gates, Kleiner Perkins, and
the Humane Society have signed on.
Cultured meat could have financial, health, animal welfare and
environmental advantages over traditional meat. Starting cells
are taken painlessly from live animals. Then they’re put into a
culture where they start to proliferate and grow independently
from the animal. Theoretically, this process would be efficient Below: The Beast Burger and Beef Chilli, by Beyond
enough to supply the global demand for meat. Meat, are designed to tempt voracious carnivores,
even though they’re made from soy and pea proteins
However, in vitro meat already has stiff competition from
elsewhere, other than your local butcher. 3D printed food,
as absurd as it sounds, is already in the pipeline. New York-
based startup Modern Meadow is leading the 3D printing charge,
having just received investment from Justin Rockefeller, great-
great-grandson of Stand Oil founder John D. Rockefeller.
“For millennia many of the world’s favourite products have
been ‘cultured’,” say the founders of Modern Meadow, citing
beer, wine, yogurt, cheese, and bread. “We use these same
principles to nurture and feed animal cells, creating high-quality
products without the animal sacrifice and environmental harms
of factory farming.”
These more futuristic solutions might not be for everyone,
but vegetarian initiatives like #MeatFreeMonday are increasingly
gaining traction, with everyone from Jamie Oliver to Tesco
promoting vegetarian recipes to consumers hungry for an
alternative at the start of each week.
“I’m vegetarian three days a week, vegan one,” says Holland.
“The world can feed itself, but we can’t eat endless meat every
day. Instead we should all eat great meat, produced by small
farmers in lower quantities. Do that and we have a sustainable
system for the world.”

Page 34 Protein — The Slow Report

 Waste Not, Want Not
Worldwide about one-third of all food produced – equivalent to
1.3 billion tonnes – gets lost or wasted in the food production
and consumption systems, according to data released by the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Wasting food means wasting money both at the household level
and in businesses throughout the supply chain – around US$1
trillion worldwide. The UK hospitality sector alone could save
£724 million per year by tackling food waste, and the value of
waste in the manufacture and retail of food and drink in the UK
is £5 billion.
“We need to change our way of eating to support every part of
the landscape – we need to cook with the whole farm,” says Dan
Barber, co-owner of iconic NYC farm-to-table restaurant Blue
Hill. “Vegetable pulp, skate cartilage, off-grade produce –
we need to find a place for these things in our cooking because
they are part of what our landscape provides. It doesn’t make
sense – ecologically, economically, or gastronomically –
to throw them away.”
Earlier this year Blue Hill launched Wasted, a pop-up restaurant
devoted to the theme of food waste and re-use. The idea is not
only to create a menu around the waste that accumulates every
day in home and restaurant kitchens, but also to reimagine waste
that occurs at every link in the food chain – in the field, during
processing and in the market place.
“Some of the greatest peasant dishes, and even cuisines, are
based on utilising what is not immediately coveted,” explains
Barber. “Take bouillabaisse from France, a stew that was
conceived around the fish that couldn’t be sold at the docks;
or Prosciutto di Parma from Italy, which gets its delicious
nutty flavour because the pigs are fed leftover whey from
the Parmesan cheese-making process in the region.” While
pockmarked potatoes, immature egg yolks and fish skin don’t
sound that appetising, sometimes it pays to place faith in a more
refined palate.
Page 35
Above & below: Wasted is a NYC-based pop-up
restaurant that creates dishes out of what would
traditionally be considered waste
Home Grown
Transport is a huge part of the problem when it comes to
developing sustainable food, and our survey showed that
89% of people would rather buy local than imported produce.
So who better to speak to then Something & Son, who have
been at the forefront of urban farming since they opened
Farm:shop – the world’s first farm in a shop – in Dalston.
“I think its really interesting that people are interested in the
process by which food comes about,” says Paul Smyth, one half
of London-based practice Something & Son, who also run urban
farm and consultancy Farm:shop. “Making food more honest and
more transparent should lead to better quality. I’m excited by
the idea that looking at something with your own eyes replaces
labelling as a form of trust. Seeing how it’s produced or even
helping to produce it yourself is a really powerful way of
changing the role of the consumer.”
Though relatively modest in scale, Farm:shop is home to
London’s first and largest aquaponics system, an indoor
hydroponic food lab, micro-mushroom farm and chicken coop.
This is the first step towards realising their plan to build a 3,000
square metre farm on a London rooftop. The farm aims to grow
over 200 tonnes of vegetables, fish and mushrooms per year
with no food miles and zero waste.
Other producers are taking the initiative too, with innovative
growing techniques: Green Sense Farms are able to produce
vast amounts of food in limited space without sunlight, due to
their use of towers of soilless planters and precise control over
temperature, humidity and CO2 levels.
Protein — The Slow Report
Below: Farm:shop, in London, plan to grow 200
tonnes of vegetables a year at its new rooftop farm

Proof In The Pudding

It’s telling that The World’s 50 Best Restaurants award now
runs alongside The World’s Most Sustainable Restaurant award.
This year the three-Michelin-star Basque restaurant Azurmendi
won the title, thanks to a roof that’s half greenhouse, half
vegetable garden and has solar panels providing the restaurant’s
electricity, as well as its commitment to nourishing local produce.
Farm:shop has also been widely praised for its contribution
to the urban farming movement: The New York Times named
Farm:shop in the 2012 Design Honors List.
Meanwhile, fast-food giant McDonald’s saw its global earnings
fall by 30%, while Coca-Cola’s fell 14% in 2014. And restaurant
chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, which advertises ‘hormone-free
meat’ and ‘locally-raised organic vegetables’ has risen as a
key competitor.
Today, as always, people care about the taste of food. But,
unlike before, they want to know the place they’re eating
it in, the process by which it’s made, and the people behind it
match their ethics and their lifestyle. Once Slow Food was a
side dish, now it’s the order of the day.

Page 36 Protein — The Slow Report

 Channelling The Slow
Words by Alex Moore
Illustration by Tom Deason
• H
alf of Norway’s population tuned in to a
134 hour programme tracking a cruise ship
• “
There’s an incredibly relaxing, mesmerising
effect to watching this content”
T he rate at which we consume media is getting out of
hand. Content is put on a plate for us in such a way
that we gorge on it. From Buzzfeed listicles to Netflix
bingeing, it’s difficult to see where any fulfilment comes from
when we’re constantly moving on to the next item. However,
there is an alternative: Slow TV is respite from the high-octane
television we’re used to, offering marathon coverage of ordinary
events. Slow TV storyboards are organic and progressive, as
opposed to the scene-hopping television we’re accustomed to.
Very little happens, but that’s kind of the point. Slow TV offers
a more subdued, introspective and personal type of experience;
it’s the quiet antithesis of how content has been evolving.
Those who’ve missed Slow TV’s very steady emergence have
been appropriately slow on the uptake. Since 2009, Norway
has been producing prime-time television that typically lasts
anywhere between five hours and five days. Norway’s inaugural
Slow TV offering, Bergensbanen, was a seven-hour, minute-by-
minute train journey, and it was uncharted television territory.
Norway’s public broadcaster NRK considered not what would
be risked by doing this, but what would be risked by not doing
this. It aired the programme at prime time on a Friday night
and 1.2 million Norwegians tuned in, gaining the broadcaster a
market share of 15%. “An uninterrupted timeline is just a basic
way of telling a story,” explains Thomas Hellum, the award-
Page 37
winning television producer behind NRK’s Slow TV movement.
“Sometimes content doesn’t have to be more difficult than making
an engaging story. The viewer can think: what’s around the next
curve? Where do we come out of this tunnel? What could possibly
happen? Probably nothing will happen, but you never know.”
Two years later 2.54 million of Norway’s five million population
tuned in for Hurtigruten, a 134-hour live stream of one of
Norway’s most famous cruises. The broadcast set the world
record for the longest live television documentary. “We choose
to make Slow TV about things that are somehow rooted in
Norwegian culture; stories that are worth telling,” says Hellum.
“That way we engage a broad audience.” The stories, he adds,
need to have facts and content that make good visual television.
Despite being decidedly Norwegian, these shows have found
an almost cult following around the world. British Airways has
adopted Slow TV as an option for its inflight entertainment
(a condensed six-hour version of Hurtigruten to be precise).
“We’re always on the lookout for new and interesting content
that gives British Airways passengers the sense of discovery
or enrichment during their journey,” says Jason Haney, British
Airways brand manager at Spafax, an inflight entertainment
curation agency. “There’s also an incredibly relaxing, mesmerising
effect to watching this content, which fits in with British Airways’
existing well-being programme.”
Protein — The Slow Report
Page 38 Protein — The Slow Report

Viewing the perspective of a train journey or boat cruise while
on a plane has an irony that is not lost on BA. “It’s engaging, but
in a completely different way,” says Haney. “It encourages one to
disconnect, become less active, and allows you to be transported
from wherever your seat is ‒ the couch in your home or the
comfort of your seat on an aircraft.”
Perhaps regular TV doesn’t offer this disconnection. To counter
the pace and stress of our modern lives, people have been
turning to meditation and mindfulness; Slow TV provides an
accessible tool to help get into that headspace. With this in mind,
artists and photographers have been turning their hands to the
medium, rising to the challenge of making Slow TV that is both
engaging and hypnotic, best viewed in high definition, streamed
or downloaded from the internet.
London-based photographer Toby Smith recently filmed a
six-hour train journey from Dewanganj to Dhaka in Bangladesh
in stunning 4K resolution. Presented without a single dropped
frame or interruption to either image or sound, it pushes the
technical bounds of the medium.
“As the films are not constructed, edited or constrained to
specific chapters, storyboards or scheduling, they make for a
genuinely relaxing and intriguing experience,” explains Smith.
“They can be used as on-screen wallpaper, an escapist journey or
just a way of teasing the digital knots out of a stressful day.”
The idea of repurposing a television or computer screen into
decorative, ambient furnishing or perhaps relegating it to the
second most important screen in the room is becoming more
commonplace. Where families would make an event of gathering
round the wireless, the radio has for many become background
noise. Is the same thing happening to the television? Is it just a
comfort to have something on the screen while we work or scroll
through social media? BBC Four thinks not, having recently
brought Slow TV to British television with a series of programmes
under the banner BBC Four Goes Slow.
Page 39
“
It encourages one to
disconnect, become less
active, and allows you
to be transported from
wherever your seat”
The most popular offerings in its Slow TV season to date,
Dawn Chorus: the Sounds of Spring and a documentary about
the making of a glass jug; both attracted nearly half a million
viewers. “BBC Four is always looking to surprise its audience
with new and innovative programming,” says Owen Courtney,
BBC Four’s head of planning and scheduling. “In an ever more
frantic world, BBC Four wanted to give viewers the chance to
breathe out and take time to enjoy the journey, experience
and process in a different way.”
The BBC may have pipped US television to the post, but only
because in the US the Slow TV debut has been saved for the
most frantic day of the year. The Travel Channel will air Slow
Road Live, a serene 12-hour road trip (in real time), on Black
Friday (27 November) as a way to unwind and escape from the
no-holds-barred street fight that the day of discount shopping
has become.
Aside from the educational or relaxing aspects of this timely
practice, there may be a more cynical motivation to producing
presenter-less, dialogue free, unedited television. Is Slow TV a
response to austerity? Slow TV could prove to be an effective,
economical way to fill schedules. Yet it’s TV that speaks to the
masses at the end of a long day. It’s TV for thinkers and TV
for the thoughtless, or perhaps just TV that requires as much
thought as you’re willing to give it.
Protein — The Slow Report
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