Beinghuman Weekend - Review by Helen Moore

In the digital age, news travels fast, but Frome may not have been aware that last weekend (18th-20th June) a new movement was being launched in our midst.  Tucked away in a corner of Keyford, an international crowd of independent creatives – journalists, ecologists, philosophers, writers, musicians and artists – were brought together by singer and musician Gaynor O’Flynn at the Beinghuman warehouse to share their art-forms, to network and inspire each other.   

Independence from mainstream creative industries was a common theme, as was a spirit of collaboration – not just DIY, but DIT (Do It Together).  The varied digital tools that nowadays allow us all to publish music, videos, writings, thoughts etc were also discussed, and live webcasts of interviews and debates were streamed online to signal the launch of a ‘Slow Media Movement’.

What exactly this might entail became an ongoing conversation.  In our sound-byte culture, a lengthy webcast is a radical concept.  And how does the independent mode confront issues of quality and craft when historically people in the creative industries have worked hard to develop a specialism in their chosen medium?

Other discussions raised critiques of corporate media, including its relationship to advertising – Orsola de Castro, a fashion designer working with recycled materials, and Frome-based Charty Durrant, a former editor of British Vogue magazine, spoke of the challenges of getting the stories behind the illusory world of high fashion into the media when editors are duty-bound to feature the companies paying for advertising space.

Considering the statistics that the average child in the Western world is likely to have witnessed 18,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on TV by the time they finish school, the ethics of this new slow media movement were also debated.  Dr. Ian Tennant of Resurgence Magazine, which features articles on ‘earth, art and spirit’, made a comparison with the Slow Food Movement, which grew up in response to fast food, and uses only locally sourced seasonal organic food as its ingredients.  Will the content of a Slow Media Movement have a similar ethical focus to counteract the constant focus on crime, sex and violence of ‘fast media’?  The answers are not yet apparent, but what is clear is that the movement will only be whatever we all choose to make it.