This week focused on the future of our projects, how we can spread them and what strategies we will chose to make them financially sustainable. The class was based on a group discussion and a use case on the Smart Citizen kit on which we worked in groups to propose future strategies.
Concerning my projects, as described
here. I am starting, with Gerda and Paula B, a movement at the intersection between the slow movement and the low tech movement. The objective is to bring more awareness and promote a more resilient lifestyle, having a different approach to technology and reconnect with ancient techniques, rituals. It takes shape with:
- events to make this movement become part of our culture, our rituals,
- objects or devices to readapt ancient techniques to today’s context and create a new “slow esthetics”
The events can be split into different types:
- Social events such as the Solar Brunches we started to organize (one happened in May, the next one at the end of June for MDEFest). They are organized in collaboration with other associations aligned with our vision. In the case of the Solar Brunches, they are organized in ConnectHort and in collaboration with the author of Low Tech Magazine. These events are occasions to show the use and purpose of low tech devices in a entertaining context.
- Gastronomic events are another possibility as some of the devices we are working on are related to food preservation or preparation. In the context of MDEFest, we are hosting with other classmates an exhibition focused on ancient methods, rituals, crafts related to conservation. The event will take place a LEKA restaurant and during the two days of the exhibition, the menu will include some of the exhibited projects. In the case of Slow Lab, we will cook some of the ingredients with our solar ovens, the narritive around each project will be shared with the restaurant’s clients. In the future, we could plan more of these collaborations with food businesses that share the same vision.
- Workshops can be future possibilities as some people participating in the previous event manifested their interest in wanting to learn how to make some of the objects themselves. If they are connected to a specific topic, the workshops will also be organized in collaboration with other organizations. We are working on bike generators also to open the topic of our autonomy in terms of electricity and thought the format of workshops for people to build their own power station would make sense. We have been discussing this possibility with Bicihub and Biciclot and they were open to include some workshops in their programmation of events or even co-organize one.
- Cultural events/design festivals with topics close to our interventions can be a way to spread our vision to other designers students or professionals and contribute to growing a community of like-minded creatives. One example that we had identified is the Solar Biennale that will take place in Rotterdam next September.
Concerning the objects or devices, we can differentiate two cases:
- Tutorials and open source files for the devices we make: such as solar ovens, solar dehydrators, bike generators. In that case, the files will be shared under a Creative Commons Licence. We would probably choose the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) one, which allow others to
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format,
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The second case for our devices is that some of them can be bought directly made by us on demand, to avoid having to store a big quantity of items. This is a part of the economic model that we want to develop. For this, the possible ways to sell them are:
- directly through our website / social media where we will communicate about the devices available to buy,
- during the events,
- by collaborating with professional such as interior designers that could propose these slow items to their clients when working on a new house or on a renovation.
To organize all this, we will need a real structure and will create a non profit organization for Slow Lab. This will also enable the application for subventions or grants supporting this kind of projects.