Växla ner (gearing down)
Johanna Jägell
HDK-Valand – Academy of Art and Design
Who sets your pace? We live in an accelerated society where efficiency, automation and instant gratification increasingly shape how we interact with technology and designed objects. As interactions become faster and more frictionless, what might we lose when there is less need to wait, participate or pay attention? Design does not only enable actions; it can shape behaviours, habits and cultural values over time. This raises questions about what happens when speed and efficiency become the default, and what other possibilities emerge when design instead introduces friction, delay and bodily participation. By deliberately slowing down interaction, Växla ner explores how design can create space for attention, presence and reflection — so that slowing down becomes something we experience physically rather than simply something we are told to do.