TECHNOCULTURE,
SPEED AND SLOW MOVEMENT
“Faster is always
better”
Or
“Slow and steady
wins the race”
Well, both the
above mentioned points are agreeable to some extent, right? This blog post is
assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad Sir to read and reflect our views connecting all these dots about the culture of speed and the need for the culture of Slow movement or slow philosophy. Click on the link to read Sir's blog on 'Slow Movement: A Cultural Shift towards Slowing Down Life's Speed'.
Can we ever think to be slow in this fast-moving world? Had the thought of being slow ever raised in our minds? It can never occur because of our fear of lacking behind. Well, technology had given us an opportunity to think, to create something ahead of our time or say it connects us with the moving time. Hence, the Slow Movement is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. The Slow philosophy is not about doing everything at a snail's pace.
"It's about seeking to do everything at the right speed."
Sometimes, the faster the work is done, gives unsatisfactory results. The quote perfectly matches here is "hurry is always in a worry". The slower and on time the work is done, has some quality, perhaps.
Pramod K. Nayar explores the field of technoculture and risk wherein he had suggested major theorists who propounded the major discourse of how things work and how to recognize the absences.
Pramod K Nayar in his book 'An Introduction to Cultural Studies' introduces the topic
TECHNOCULTURE And RISK as-
Contemporary critical theory has had to negotiate with massive environmental disasters, industrial disasters, 9/11 and other cataclysmic events. One of the major social theory which examines the role of such events plays in culture is that which influence the risk society.
Well, here are some theories that are discussed in this blog with reference to Technoculture and Slow moment.
Jean Baudrillard describes the dangers of speed and hyperreal wherein he inquires that the present age of reproduction is full of imitations. The distinction between the real and the illusory, between original and copy between superficiality and death has broken down and this is what we call is "hyperreality". Furthermore, he suggests that sign nearly refers to other signs and other similar science rather than the truth. 'Truth' is a simulacrum which means the copy of real without the particular origin or reality.
Paul Virilio had worked on Dromology which is the 'science of speed'.
In his concept, Paul argues histories of social-political institutions such as the military or even cultural movement demonstrate the need for speed rather than commerce. This way politics of speed is connected in the way that the highest speed belongs to the upper class of society and the slower ones to the lower strata.
Furthermore, the concept of pure war is actually weaponry for the new Information and Communication Technology because it is the weapon of the military-industrial complex that causes integral accidents such as the 1987 world stock market crash brought on by the failure of automatic program trading. (Nayar) This way the hyper-modern vision, as well as the hyper-modern city, are both the products of military power that actually control or hold controls over mass in one or the other way. It is a direct threat to democracy.
Ulrich Beck, who propounded the 'risk society' in his thesis 'Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity' says that it's not real but risks are about 'becoming-real.'
His inquiry was that technoscience in Industrial society has generated numerous dangers but as long as risk is secondary to scarcity or needs Industrial society has no problems.
In short risk, theory reflects on the psychosocial impact of technoculture where cultural responses to new devices are based upon an awareness that create new risks.
Thank you.
Works Cited-
Nayar, Pramod K. An Introduction to Cultural Studies. New Delhi: Viva Books Private Limited, 2008.
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