Engaging with Disengagement: Opting out, Slowing Down in Digital Immersive Experiences
Engaging with Disengagement: Opting out, Slowing Down in Digital Immersive Experiences
10am - 5.30pm, Thursday 1st May 2025
Advanced Research Centre, University of Glasgow (part of this event will be live streamed, please see below)
How are we situated in the 24/7 digital life of constant connectivity? What does slowing down and opting out feel like in the digital age? Is it a deferral from action or a break from the instant gratification culture? What role do the concepts of digital disengagement, opting out, or slowing down play in artistic practice?
The Immersive Experiences Lab at the University of Glasgow hosts a day-long exploration of temporal and digital media experiences through practice and critical discussions.
This event will explore various experiences of slowing down and opting out as forms of digital disengagement, seen as both a luxury and a privilege, a necessity and even a mode of resistance. It will encourage audiences, users, and community members to reflect on the consequences and effects on individuals and the environment.
Join us for a day-long event featuring Deceleration, an hour-long performance piece by the award-winning immersive theatre company ZU-UK, alongside an exhibition of digital and VR art and research, and related discussions. We are delighted to include a keynote presentation by the interdisciplinary scholar Dr Esperanza Miyake (University of Strathclyde), a workshop by Jorge Lopes Ramos (ZU-UK), and contributions to a panel discussion from the international festival of contemporary performance, Take Me Somewhere, the IELab co-director Dr Eirini Nedelkopoulou, along with the arts-based research duo Project Somnolence and sonic research collaborators Dr Iain Findlay-Walsh (University of Glasgow) and Dr Tristan Partridge (UCal, Santa Barbara).
Event schedule in brief:
- 10.00-11.00 am Deceleration performance by immersive theatre company ZU-UK
- 11.15 am -12.15 pm Serious Games Workshop: A hands-on workshop exploring the use of procedural rhetoric and analogue game design to experience themes of disengagement, opting out, and slowing down. Led by Professor Jorge Lopes Ramos (ZU-UK)
- 1.30-2.30 pm Keynote lecture: Disengaging to buy Slow Time? Glamour, Labour, and the Politics of Deceleration in the Age of Compulsory Digitality, by Dr Esperanza Miyake (University of Strathclyde)
- 2.45-4.30 pm: Fast OR Slow in Art Experiences, Provocations/Panel Discussion with Dr Eirini Nedelkopoulou (Immersive Experiences Lab), Prof Jorge Lopes Ramos (ZU-UK), Take Me Somewhere Festival, Dr Maria Sledmere and Dr Kevin Leomo (Project Somnolence), Dr Iain Findlay-Walsh and Dr Tristan Partridge.
- 4.30-5.30 pm: Final Remarks - Drinks Reception
Engaging with Disengagement in Digital Immersive Experiences Exhibition (throughout the day): Project Somnolence by Maria Sledmere and Kevin Leomo, Monolith to the Buzzed by Jack Wrigley, 963 Words on Deceleration by Carl Lavery, Vectors of Novelty by Interminable Frenz (Iain Findlay-Walsh and Tristan Partridge).
Click the links on the right to find out more about each event.
Book your ticket via Eventbrite here.