Hypnotized by handheld gadgets? Try turning off the power button and experimenting with these intriguing alternatives.

It seems impossible to escape technology these days. After all, it’s all around you. You’ve got the person who stands in the grocery line divining the latest message from the almighty smartphone, or the friend with the finest in-home theater entertainment, enjoying Monday night football—3D glasses to boot. And it’s never too hard to find people commiserating around a video game, smashing controller buttons together. With the widespread integration of technology, it’s no longer a stretch to see why the architect Frank Lloyd Wright once believed, “If it [technology] keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push button finger.” Fortunately, most have managed to keep their limbs limber so far, and there’s no shortage of opportunities in Savannah to shed your gadget obsession and rediscover some lost art forms outside of today’s on-demand culture. Here’s a sampling of a few of the older arts in our own backyard.

Sewing
Furniture Making
Playing a Six String
Improvisation Acting
Conversation
Idly passing time
Letterpress printing

Photography by Michelle L. Morris

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