For their second Slow Art Day, the art gallery PKULTRA, in Seattle, WA, invited visitors to look slowly at the art of gallery owner, Paul Kuniholm – a public artist who works in sculpture, video, mural art, time-based work, as well as digital and, for this exhibit, binary art.

The binary-encoded art series for Slow Art Day consisted of wayfinding and fine art paintings using binary encoding of various light-hearted narratives from emojis, positive affirmations, cognitive behavioral therapy maxims and cheerful quips.

In addition, Kuniholm hosted a live hour-long audio ‘slow’ podcast with lots of silence, random conversation with passerbys, and others during the gallery’s Slow Art Day.

At one point during the podcast, Kuniholm reports that during his training at the Seattle Art Museum he was told the typical visitor spends 7 seconds looking at any individual artwork (a statistic we’ve seen and reported on before). He also muses about the ‘equation’ for slow looking.

After participants looked slowly, they were asked to take a whimsical exit survey (see below).

• 1. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH YOUR SLOW ART DAY EXPERIENCE TODAY?   [    ] YES    [     ] NO
• 2.  HAS ANYONE COMMENTED, YOU SEEM NUMERICAL? A TEN, ETC [    ] YES    [     ] NO
• 3. DO YOU HAVE A SECRET “MAGIC” NUMBER? [    ] YES    [     ] NO
• 4.  DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE NUMBER SONG? [    ] YES    [     ] NO
• 5.  DO YOU USE YOUR FINGERS, DIGITS, FOR MATH?        [    ] YES    [     ] NO
• 6.  ARE YOU ALWAYS LOOKING OUT FOR NUMBER ONE?        [    ] YES    [     ] NO

At Slow Art Day HQ we are glad that PKULTURA has joined the Slow Art Day movement, and hope that other artist-run galleries take inspiration to host their own event in 2024.

-Johanna, Phyl, Ashley, and Jessica Jane.

P.S. Check out their Instagram for more information about PKULTURA.