The Slow Factory is both a research lab and school that builds design thinking systems based on recurrent human rights and environmental challenges.
The New York-based school stretches out its hands to the world and is known to share fact-based content in the form of bite-sized Instagram posts.
One of the Slow Factory’s flagship programs is their Open Edu semesters where the school invites experts and scholars to approach and historicize different topics such as fashion colonialism, media literacy, cancel culture, waste and many others. Anyone can sign up, attend Zoom talks, and discuss course material in interactive forums.
The Slow Factory prides itself on teaching everyone what algorithms want to keep a secret. With a decolonizing lens in place, the think tank uses design and history to position, unpack and destroy colonization in the spheres of fashion, beauty, waste, media, and sustainability.
The founder is none other than our own personal hero, Celine Semaan, a Lebanese designer, writer, and activist who holds Lebanon and Arab culture dearly. She is also a member of Council Progressive International and acts a director’s fellow in the MIT media lab. Semaan also co-hosts a docu-show on climate change, which you can catch online on Aorta TV.
The all-around iconic Lebanese woman was once interview by fellow icon SZA on the topic of spirituality and sustainability for Interview magazine.
Sign up to the Slow Factory’s free for all open edu classes here. Follow Celine Semaan here. Happy learning and re-learning!
