Technology is far away at Faraday’s

What do you do when you’re having a cup of coffee at your local coffee shop? Do you quietly settle down for an hour or so with a book, spend time with friends and gossip time away or do you use this ‘down’ time to browse the internet, use social media to the n^th degree and crack on with that pesky assignment?

If you’re in the latter category we suggest that you avoid the Faraday Café in Vancouver.

According to a news story that is doing the rounds at the moment, the Canadian coffee shop has become the first retail outlet of its kind to repel wireless signals, rendering modern technology such as phones and tablets utterly pointless.

We have seen, frequented and heard about a number of cafés that have banned the use of mobile phones – or at the very least politely ask you not to use them whilst on their premises – but the Faraday Café has taken things a step or two further by setting up inside a great big metal box.

“I think that the proliferation of digital technology like smartphones has happened so fast that we haven’t really had a chance to have a conversation about the etiquette or the ethics around their use,” the designer, Julien Thomas, said.

“I wanted to create a space outside of the media – literally outside of our access – so we could have a conversation.”

Thomas, a social artist based in British Columbia, believes the material used to build the Faraday Café, which is only temporary in its existence, is “quite beautiful” despite it being, effectively, a cage.

A cage where technology simply just doesn’t work.

It is, in effect, a refuge from the outside world where patrons can go to switch off and disconnect and, hopefully, rediscover the lost art of conversations.

photo: Tim Li (Cropped and used under creative commons)