Preparations for Thinking Slow

Background: In the neoliberal context of 'the burnout society' (philosopher Byung-Chul Han) and corresponding ecological emergency, scholars, artists and tourism groups are exploring forms of collective encounter and travel that value slowness rather than speed; dwelling rather than consumption. From critical tourism studies comes the concept of 'mobile neighbouring' (Veijola), but how might such events play out in practice? And how can modes of nonfiction report and reflect upon such experiments in such a way as to convey, both from the inside of the experience and with distance, their 'affective atmosphere?' (Anderson) Contribution: This essay reports on the experience of a 'SlowLab' camp held in Finnish Lapland that brought together artists, scholars and tourism entrepreneurs. It contributes to the field of literary nonfiction practice by adopting Barthes' concept of 'preparations' (from his Preparations for the Novel) as a formal device to convey the atmosphere of intimacy and lingering (Han) engendered by the SlowLab. By shifting in and out of first- and second-person address, the essay invites reflection on point of view and relationality that adds affective resonance to its themes, drawn from the camp itself, of 'being-alongside' (Latimer) and 'being in the company of' (Carlin and Rendle-Short). Significance: The project was funded by a competitive grant for industry-linked research from TEKES, Finland. The essay was a Finalist in the 8th Annual Nonfiction Contest of the US-based Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environments, the world's first place-based online journal and is the world's longest-publishing online literary journal. In 2018 Terrain.org reached over 141,000 unique visitors with 267,000 page-views. It has published leading ecological and place-based nonfiction writers from Wendell Berry and Alison Hawthorne Deming to Aisha Sabatini Sloan and Nicole Walker. In 2018 Terrain.org was a finalist for the AWP Small Press Publisher Award.