I believe the future belongs to those who make it. Slowcity.ca is my project. We connect people who make things with people who make things happen.
We are a tool, a resource, a database, a community conversation, a place for makers, a connector, a technology, a template, an art and we are a platform to help you activate the environment you need to thrive.
It began as the art of transition, from manufacturing to manufacturers, from one idea to many ideas.
Slowcity.ca enables the transition to happen through storytelling. We are and have been at the centre of this change. We have been connecting, slowly, over time, organically, a network, a tree.
We grow up and we grow down deeper, channelling stories up into the crown. Or is it up into a cloud?
Are we a STEM like tree or a STEAM like cloud?
We are STEAM; Science, Tech, Engineering, Mathematics and Art. STEAM is the new energy source to fuel the successful transition of Durham during this time of massive disruption in traditional sectors.
Who knows what the future will bring? The artists who are making it.
“And so the arts are for survival purposes, and for navigation purposes and as such are indispensable even at the most homely and humble levels.” - Marshall McLuhan
Look closely at the swirl of information we swim in. See the patterns. We do and we see too the next step in the pattern before others because we are inside the swirl. We have learned to navigate by art.
We see the makers in the stream, the environment art creates; it is a circle, a sphere, 360 degrees. The future is not in front of us anymore, it is all around us.
Slowcity.ca documents the creative makers of Durham Region. Our reach across all platforms is measurable but our true measurement is by how many makers we have aided in activating their dreams.
Mirjana Simeunovich is a photographer. We began with small shows at clubs in downtown Oshawa. She now regularly covers shows at the Oshawa Music Hall, the Tribute Community Centre acts, the Regent, is selling her photographs to bands and has debuted her first solo exhibit at Cork and Bean. She also shoots now for Snap Oshawa/Clarington.
Joe Szek is a retired teacher with a deep love of community theatre. He wanted to write. Joe began writing about Durham Region based theatre groups. He is now invited to many performances across southern Ontario, in small towns and in the major centres such as Toronto and Straford. He is also the chief Toronto critic for OnStage blog.
Chris Wunderlich is a musician and a videographer. He wanted to build a magazine with a specific focus on the Region’s graphic arts community, along with prose writers and poets. Wunderlit is the result. Its now on its fourth issue and is produced every three months.
Wunderlit uses the deep collaborative network slowcity.ca has built as a source for content. We used the template and data we have to curate a launch at the RMG in 2018. It was an evening of readings, spoken word, pop-up theatre, hiphop and ambient music on one of the coldest night of the year; 200 people came out.
Slowcity.ca solves problems by creating opportunities, managing projects and sourcing funding for these creative entrepreneurs. We connect them with our tribe of people who care and with our greatest resource, the tribe’s trust.
We ask you to join our trusted circle and invest in cultural innovators and blue sky thinkers.
Apologies to all the artists whose images I have used here without their permission - Top to bottom : Jay Dart, Edward Falkenberg, Matt Catalano, Toni Hamel, Frances Ferdinands, Edward Falkenberg. Contact helloslowcity@gmail.com for any necessary corrections.