What if innovation isn't a race to be accelerated, but a rhythm to be composed? Today's dominant imperative is to speed up innovation: accelerators, hypergrowth, breakneck pace. But this singular, linear rhythm is fundamentally incompatible with the inherently polyrhythmic nature of social and ecological systems, with the non-negotiable, cyclical rhythms of reproduction and care that cannot be hurried without causing harm. Nature and human societies do not move on a single tempo: they operate as polyrhythmic symphonies, where multiple rhythms co-occur, resonate, clash, and work in sync. Innovation, too, has always been polyrhythmic, we have simply lost touch with this.
On 22–23 April 2027, the workshop The Rhythms of Innovation: Explorations into Alternative Imaginaries of Technological Change will gather scholars in Pontevedra, at the Post-growth Innovation Lab of the University of Vigo, to shift the conversation beyond fast versus slow innovation, toward the democratic governance of multiple, simultaneous rhythms, aligning innovation with the conditions for a flourishing, post-growth society. The event will run for one and a half days, combining selected paper presentations with an interactive music–science workshop that puts the polyrhythmic approach into practice.
Because the question is no longer how fast innovation should run, but who holds the power to modulate its rhythms.