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A behind-the-scenes look and chronological retelling of the Slow AI research project, approach, and activities.

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INDEX

A retrospective

🍜 The Slow AI Soup Is Serving Soon! Remember that Slow AI soup that’s been simmering and stirring? For all of 2024, we’ve been exploring what Slow AI is and could be. We’re finally beginning to set the table and converge our thoughts. But before serving, let’s take stock of this joyful journey so far!

1. Community Session XL Seeding Alternative AI Narratives 🔥

Kicking off the Slow AI research, we hosted our first community session to begin seeding and sensing alternative AI narratives. Overwhelmed by the # of sign-ups (a good sign), we reworked our original plan (which anticipated 15-20 people hehe) to accommodate more people.

We put out an open call in the community and ended up with a beautiful line-up of people to facilitate and hold the space alongside us. Shoutout to Andres Colmenares, Fred Wordie, Amritha Warrier & Gustavo Nogueira de Menezes.

We loved how rich the discussion was, how beautifully chaotic the Miro board was, and the plenty of provocations and questions we surfaced together 🪁 We easily - in the words of Alja - could have done this all day.

After much deliberation while roaming around the board and taking into account the votes we cast at the end of the session, we’ve made our (difficult!) selection on what to move forward with.

2. Research Leads join on Small, Ancestral, and Esoteric AI 📚

We selected three streams to explore more in-depth >> Small AI, Esoteric AI & Ancestral AI, which we have been exploring and pondering ever since. In the Slow AI preface or this 1-min video version, you can find out more about our intentions.

Through our open call for researchers and struggling to select from the incredible applicants that applied, Natalia Stanusch joined us as our Esoteric AI witch, Gustavo Nogueira de Menezes time-travelled through Ancestral AI, and Nadia Nadesan explored the micro-verse of Small AI.

3. Live Conversations with Brains We Adore 🧠

Our leads hosted conversation sessions with artists and researchers working in / around the questions and tensions of each research strand.

• Nadia N. invited Linda Dounia Rebeiz and Vera van der Burg to explore small and shifting realities.
• Gustavo teamed up with Thiago Britto and Monique Lemos to investigate integrating wisdom across time, and the convo was so hot they could not stop talking for 2 hours.
• Nat even hosted two conversations: She delved into understanding AI through politics of divination and chicanery with David Benqué. Besides she had a top-secret chat with Bogna Konior on AI, Angels, and Female Erotic Mysticism. Sadly, we weren’t allowed to record that one, but it will only live forever in our brains and hearts <3 To get a taste of it, you can watch a similar talk by her here.

4. From URLs to IRL Magic by Zine-making w/ Internet Teapot ✂️

We couldn’t keep all this goodness online, so we took it to the streets with three buzzin zine-making sessions. We explored AI for Ants, dived into (Dis)enchantment, and pondered Pasts Presents Futures.

Big shoutout to our Internet Teapot pals, Karla Zavala and Adriaan Odendaal, for making these happen and hosting so beautifully and creatively!

We are now compiling and editing the zines and cannottttt wait to show you more.

And a big thanks to The Sphere, Roodkapje, and Stadsarchief for hosting us in their spaces!