“We have become so overfamiliarized with and preconditioned to the push-button world of on and off that it feels quite bizarre simply imagining it has being any other way. This overfamiliarization that is holding us back, both as a creative industry and as a society of forward-facing consumers.”

Jonathan Chapman – Emotionally Durable Design, Objects, Experiences and Empathy.

After years of development and technology advances, especially since the arrival of the Internet in 1989, we unfortunately came to the point where we have to defend the act of thinking. In a world where everything is judged based on intensity and speed, slowing down is now a luxury not everyone wants to afford. But whether it is too obvious or too outdated we have to address the paradox around the Value of Spectatorship. This exhibition, along with its catalogue, approaches the concept of slow consumption in media by promoting the benefits of spectatorship through the lens of photographer Fergus Heron, filmmaker Natalia Almada and graphic designer Carla Contini editor, designer, and curator of this exhibition.

This project approaches the concept of slow consumption in media by promoting the benefits of spectatorship. The exhibition, along with its catalogue gathers the work of Photographer Fergus Heron and filmmaker Natalia Almada along with their views on slowness in production and in consumption.

Both books and exhibitions are great mediums for story-telling and open-ended interpretations. Their format offers a specific experience tailored to the spectator where the latter can invest the time into listening to someone else’s insight and encounter each piece as he wishes.

The design of the catalogue has been meticulously thought out to give space to the reader to pause and reflect, and create deeper meaningful connections. Details like texture, pace and colours are intended to help the reader to fully immerse themselves into the publication and represent the artwork exactly like it would be displayed in the exhibition. Other elements like the white space creates a separation between content and forces the eye to cross the entire page for each spread. As a result, the reader is forced to have the catalogue fully open to commit to its reading and can observe each piece individually.

The work is intended to be presented in one big room where the visitor can move around freely and encounter each piece the way they wants, just like he would when flipping through the publication. The catalogue will also be presented inside the exhibition on tables for the texts that accompanies the photographs.

Finally, to tie back both outcomes together I chose to use the cover of the catalogue to create the exhibition guide and embossed the floor plan of the exhibition onto the cover of the catalogue.