Slow Movement

At the beginning of this century (it's kind of special that our lives straddle two centuries), there arose a movement towards "consciously" slowing down the frantic pace of life that carries us along whether we want it to or not.  And that was in the pre-iPhone era, mind you.  The movement started more or less simultaneously in various aspects of our modern life - there is a Slow Food Movement, a book called In Praise of Slowness, a blog called Slow Love Life, albeit that came later, and so on.  

Even in architecture, it was becoming cool, when I was studying architecture from 2001 to 2005, to draw, design, and fabricate by "hand"- molding beautiful architectural adornments painstakingly from raw material to finished products.  The design philosophy of architects of the likes of Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, and Tom Kundig were given as examples in class.  I remembered going on a field trip to see the now-no-longer-existing American Folk Art Museum on W. 53rd Street, New York, designed by the Tsien-Williams team, completed in 2001, and being awe-struck by its fractured façade, consisting of 63 individually cast, copper-bronze panels (which incidentally have been saved from demolition).  The building was torn down recently to make way for an expansion of the Museum of Modern Art.  There was a huge outcry regarding MOMA's controversial decision to demolish this unique, jewel-box-like museum (itself a work of art), whose brief, barely a decade old life span was almost unheard of in the annals of building construction. 

What has got me thinking about slowness, though it is not really relevant to the slowness movement described above, was my recent discovery of a German learning blog called Slow German, posted by someone who periodically reads in a slightly slower pace a short essay in German on various topics to aid people who are interested in learning German.  (It is amazing how many helpful and free resources one can find on-line about almost anything.) I have been frustrated by not being able to break through the barrier between understanding the grammar and vocabulary of German and speaking it spontaneously.  I'm convinced that there is a mysterious threshold which one crosses in learning a new language as an adult, when, quite unbeknownst to you, one day you become able to speak in consecutive sentences about certain subjects in that new language, like the time you came to be able to ride a bicycle.  This of course is just fuzzy thinking on my part; I know full well that nothing will happen unless I put in the time to practice and practice and practice.(But, I'll keep you posted on the day it happens for me, if it does happen at all.)

What follows is a TED talk by the author of In Praise of Slowness, Carl Honore, if you're interested -

Stand up for Health

Writing while standing

Kirk's first DIY project for this summer and the sabbatical following were two hardwood stands which we used to turn our current desks into standing desks. I think he was more excited by the opportunity to build something by hand than the possible health benefits (BBC, NYT) associated with standing more vs. sitting all the time.  From my casual mentioning of shopping for a standing desk and our chance discovery of a lumber store in town, it took Kirk less than four days to put together two stands, meticulously finished and made to fit our respective desks and heights.   

My petite stand

The beginning of the summer break is always the impetus for getting us to give tired resolutions a fresh start.  Today, having doggedly stood for about eight hours in front of our computers, we officially kick-started our summer resolution to get more fit.  Surprisingly it was not as uncomfortable as we anticipated it would be.  I think I'm going to be addicted to it soon and to regard sitting as rather ungainly.  As for Kirk, he would like to reserve his opinion until tomorrow morning, I think.      




26. 06 2014 Update:

Compression socks and
anti-fatigue mat
to the rescue

Actually we are completely accustomed to working standing now.  There is no turning back...