Slowness, Streams, and Networks in the More-than-human World: Prototyping an Internet of Things for Water

Abstract

Departing from the concept of an Internet of Things (IoT) as a means to give voice to non-human ‘things’, the project Wildthings.io seeks to develop experimental prototypes for grassroots, community-run digital networks, and DIY electronic devices as artistic interventions. This article discusses the iterative design processes that concluded in the IoT artwork Papawai Transmissions, which imagines novel ways of understanding and (re-) connecting with disconnected streams, their communities and their ecosystems in urban Aotearoa/New Zealand, focussing particularly on slowness as a key method for designing in a more-than-human context, alongside openness and seamfulness.