SLoDA is an emerging research group of artists, designers and scholars exploring what happens when digital art slows down and pays attention to its footprint. We work with low-tech and “small tech” tools, repairable devices and modest digital systems, caring as much about process, repair and maintenance as outcomes. Rooted in and around Manchester, we prototype artworks and methods that others can understand, adapt and reuse in studios, classrooms and community spaces, telling situated, accountable stories that make their material, energy and social conditions visible.
SLoDA Core Principles
Sustainable
Critical
Accessible
We develop low-tech digital practices that minimise energy use, extend the life of tools and materials, and foreground repair over replacement.
We question who technology serves, how it is made, and what its social and environmental costs are, using practice and research to open these issues up.
We develop low-tech digital practices that minimise energy use, extend the life of tools and materials, and foreground repair over replacement
SLoDA Statement on AI
We are not against AI, but we will approach it critically. We are interested in how AI systems are trained, who they benefit, what energy and labour they rely on, and how they can be used in slower, smaller, more accountable ways. We welcome experiments with AI that are transparent, reflexive and open to critique, rather than driven by speed, scale and hype.
Join SLoDA!
We are an emerging group based in Manchester, aiming to grow into a national and international network for low-tech digital art. If you’d like to connect, collaborate or join our activities, get in touch via [email/contact form] and share a few words about your interests SLoDA welcomes researchers and artists who want to rethink digital art with modest means, critical curiosity and a respect for limits and who see low-tech not as a downgrade, but as a different way of making knowledge and culture together.
Partnerships
We will collaborate with mission-aligned organisations....