06-13-11

Slow Media? What is that?

Slow Media? What is that? people ask me.

About 5 years ago during an internship at a TV station I started thinking how the media production in the country where I have been living (Canada) is so much like our popularized food production: fast, cheap, filled with salt, sugar, grease and meant to satisfy our most basic food receptors which respond to these tastes. But it left us hungry for the more subtle and deeper needs of our bodies which craved nutrients, and connection. I wanted to create media like the food I enjoyed to eat, nutritious, fresh, local, prepared with love and care and shared with my friends and family. At the time I was thinking of creating a media company called Slow Food Media, as I delved deeper into this more organic media production I changed my mind about the name.

Much like the concept of Slow Food, Slow Media(read the manifesto) is not actually about the speed but about the approach. My project Green Dream and the last five years of media creation, have been a practical exploration of creating media in a way that feels natural to me. For example Green Dream is a brave attempt to create a film that does not follow an industry production line formula. I did not have a big film crew. Sometimes I would get help from colleagues and friends, but most of the time I jumped on my bike, camera-bag on my shoulder, tripod strapped to the bike rack, and I wondered the city filming what struck my attention. The film became part of my daily life.

Although a documentary, Green Dream does not conform to the canonized storytelling structure. Instead it takes an intuitive approach where the story unfolds in the process of filming. In Green Dream I posed a question, ‘what is nature, and how can we have a harmonious relationship with it?‘ I started to explore and search for answers to this question through filming how people interact with nature (primarily urban green spaces) comparing the stark contrast between Bulgarian’s chaotic laissez faire approach and Canada’s rigid manicured approach. In the process of filming, new questions emerged. Was I struggling with trying to control my exploratory film process the same way that the Canadians I was filming were controlling and manicuring green spaces, consequently creating uninspired rigid landscapes? Was Bulgaria’s laissez faire approach showing a lack love and care? How can we base our relationship with nature on love? What is love? I am allowing the final product to emerge through this process of exploration.

Another example is a community mapping project ‘I know a place’ in which I used mobile phones, associate with fast city life and disconnection from the physical environment, in order to do just the opposite, give the participants a framework in which they can stop and experience the physical environment and contemplate our connection to it.

Why I prefer the name Green Dream Media for my company is because I base my model of creating media on my understanding of an ecosystem. Each organism in an ecosystem has its own inherent nature. A steward does not dictate what an organism should be, the steward listens to the essential nature of the organism and tries to understand its needs and to take care of it accordingly. When the organism is taken care of and his needs are satisfied, it blossoms. While conventional media tells us we are all unique, it often tries to create images for people to follow, and we follow them trying to be cool and hip. Instead, I believe in creating and using media in a way that empowers each person to tune into their inherent nature, to their community and physical environment. I feel that media can provide invaluable tools to explore, express and share our true nature.

Slow media is becoming a buzz concept. It reminds me of the branding of organic food as a new and hip thing. However up until 60 years ago for thousands of years, most of our food production was organic. Slow media is a new concept only in the context of the current fast, drama and gadget oriented mediascape. I believe that the slow media’s pace and approach are just as natural to us as it is eating a tomato from your own garden. It is not discovering anything new, only realigning us with our deeper self.

In a buzz way Green Dream Media is the first Slow Media company in Canada (and if you want to be even more buzz ‘the first in the world’).  In a more authentic way, Green Dream Media is a company which uses art, film, video and web technologies to help us reconnect with our physical environment, strengthen our community and understand our deeper desires and needs.  Simply a media creation that reminds of what is to have joy and to be in love.