Slowing Down to Grow (Virtual Grounds Residency)

2020 to 2021 - Essay, Research, Participatory

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An exploratory essay: Thoughts + collective anecdotes about why linking growth and progress doesn’t always end up the way it should.

How do we reckon with forces that encourage growth for the sake of growth?

‘Slowing Down To Grow’ is an exploratory, personal reflection on the values and reasons for industrial growth, personal growth, and why linking growth and progress doesn’t always end up the way it should.

Readers are prompted to click on the closing questions of each section, and are also given a space to write their own answers to the questions. Their stories are being added to a growing collection of people’s personal relationships with the concept of growth. The ever-growing collection shows us a narrative about progress as described by people, instead of corporations or economic need.

The initial inspiration for this project came from my family’s culture of overwork, and how I made unhealthy work/life decisions based on it. Questioning my own attempts to optimize my life path made me question the value of optimization in a wider scope: in city planning, in tech, in culture.

About the Virtual Grounds Residency (2020)

Virtual Grounds was a series dedicated to feminist perspectives on digital sustainability and survival presented by Trinity Square Video and the Digital Justice Lab.

It consisted of a 2-part training and research initiative that considers how we navigate the future, protect our virtual selves, and shape digital landscapes. Over the course of 11 months, we will survey how technology continues to grow and impact our lives in different ways through a series of workshops led by practicing creative technologists, scholars, and artists. The content and research created will then be compiled into a transmedia publication, which will be distributed publicly to all communities to use and interpret.

Helen Chen