BODIES OF SLOW TECHNOLOGY
19 February 2026

Looiersgracht 60 is pleased to present ‘BODIES OF SLOW TECHNOLOGY’ a presentation and publication launch for Slow Technology Reader: A Tool for Shaping Divergent Futures edited by Carolyn F. Strauss, curator, writer, and director of Slow Research Lab, a transdisciplinary platform centering ‘Slowness’ in contemporary theory and creative practice. This volume marks the third edition of the platform's Slow Reader Series, in collaboration with Valiz Publishers.

Through several essay contributions by artists and theorists whose practices engage with alternative knowledge systems and other ‘Slow’ methodologies, this volume foregrounds an expansive understanding of what technology is and can be. Moving beyond prevailing definitions rooted in digital terminologies and extractive practices, the book re-situates technology within a transhistorical continuum of social and material relations— rendering visible interlinked and entwined ecologies across time and space. With particular attunement to non-Western and more-than-human sources of intelligence, Slow Technology Reader encourages us to envision alternative paths towards a world in which artificial agents are shaped by a multiplicity of voices, embodiments, and histories, modeling a fuller spectrum of cultural and cosmological understandings, and foregrounding care and planetary well-being over metrics of efficiency and extraction.

Designed by Amsterdam-based studio HallerBrun, the publication will be available for purchase alongside a thoughtful display of printed matter exploring its unique visual identity and navigational logic. Presented within Looiersgracht 60’s archive structures, these materials offer further insight into the editorial and design processes behind the book. This special one-day book launch and presentation is accompanied by Temporary Bookshop XX. Curated by Valiz and Slow Research Lab, this edition offers a careful selection of additional titles available for purchase and further browsing, encouraging deeper engagement with the themes that underpin Slow Technology Reader and the wider Slow Reader Series.

PROGRAMME

18.00 – 20.00 (17.30 doors open)

17.30 Performance & audiovisual installation

18.00 Discussion and Q&A

19.15 Book presentation and concluding drinks

Book launch of Slow Technology Reader: A Tool For Shaping Divergent Futures

The evening opens with a layered and insightful conversation moderated by Carolyn F. Strauss, who will be joined by contributing artists Gļeb(s) Maiboroda and Camila Sposati, as they delve into the complexities of their research—with particular emphasis on embodied practices as sites of transmission across human and more-than-human worlds, and on the cultivation of plural intelligences. The conversation will be followed by a Q&A, concluding with drinks, bites, and a chance to encounter Slow Technology Reader in detail.

Performance and Installation

As the discussion unfolds, the space is activated by a durational weaving performance inspired by Gļeb(s) Maiboroda’s contribution-essay ‘Automated Bodies and the Somatics of Weaving’. Sonic elements flow and reverberate throughout the gallery, as Camila Sposati’s film installation ‘Phonosophia’, plays within a separate, enclosed space—akin to inside of an instrument—acting as both container and amplifying chamber.

This volume includes contributions by Paula Albuquerque, Kader Attia, Aista Bah, Scott Benesiinaabandan, Pacôme Béru, Cláudio Bueno, Derrais Carter, Raven Chacon, Joana Chicau, Guy Cools, Laura Coombs, Siobhán K. Cronin, Will Daddario, Edwidge Danticat, Thierno Dia, Mamadou Taslim Diallo, Henriette Essami-Khaullot, Silvia Federici, Mariana Fernández Mora, Ella Finer, Jem Finer, Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, Dakin Hart, Faïza Hirach, Candice Hopkins, Christine Hvidt, Carol R. Kallend, Theun Karelse, Danel Khojayeva, Suzanne Kite, Fran Kourouma, Jaron Lanier, Jason Edward Lewis, Pia Lindman, Gļeb(s) Maiboroda, Pierre Marchand, Michael Marder, Nanako Nakajima, Florence Okoye, Marina Orlova, Jogi Panghaal, Moisés Patrício, Rory Pilgrim, Elisabeth (elieli) Raymond, Milady Renoir, Oscar Santillán, Laurel Schwulst, Mindy Seu, Camila Sposati, Christel Stalpaert, Corey Stover, Melita Stover Janis, Foluke Taylor, Alberto Isifin Tchama, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu, Rolando Vázquez Melken, Evelyn Wan, Halidou Wuanadougo, Arkadi Zaides, Joanne Zerdy, and Martín Zícari.

Designed by HallerBrun and published by Valiz Amsterdam, in collaboration with Slow Research Lab.

This publication is supported by Creative Industries Fund NL and het Cultuurfonds.

Admission is free, but seating is limited. To RSVP for the opening please email us at info@looiersgracht60.org.