Building on the work of “The Politics of Attention: Art, Time, Technology, Action,” held in August of 2019 at Mildred’s Lane (itself a follow-up to the “Practices of Attention Symposium” at the 2018 São Paulo Biennial), a small group of invited participants convened on August 14^th and 15^th of 2020 for a set of discussions on the history, ethics, and techno-politics of our current attentional regime.

Attention lies at the nexus of perception and action, aesthetics and ethics, wealth and power. Whose eyes (and minds) are where? And for how long? These are central questions driving the evolution of politics, capitalism, and personhood in the twenty-first century. New technologies and new practices are reshaping our understanding of the attentional subject—with consequences for learning, subjectivity, and social life. In what ways can the conditions of collective existence be maintained and improved as we negotiate a radically transformed world of solicitation? What transformative potentials lie nascent in aesthetic practices, artistic interventions, and the history of spiritual exercises? Drawing on the quarantine “Gatherings” of the “Friends of Attention,” and extending these inquiries through a series of readings, seminar discussions, and experiments in artistic research, this workshop aimed to advance understanding of a difficult and important domain.

Working Groups

All core participants in “The Politics of Attention II” are part of
preparatory Working Groups; follow up with individual organizers
for more information.

Political Action: Reclaiming the Attention Commons

Daphne Barile – contact

daphne [ at ] countermail.com

Attention and Consensus

Sonali Chakravarti – contact

sonali.chakravarti [ at ] gmail.com

Jac Mullen – contact

jacmullen [ at ] gmail.com

Sustainable Political Attention: Tactics and Practices

Jeff Dolven – contact

jdolven [ at ] gmail.com

Khaled Malas – contact

khaledmalas [ at ] gmail.com

Spaces & Movements: Sanctuaries/Attentional-Militias

Helen Singh-Miller – contact

hsingh-miller [ at ] massart.edu

Len Nalencz – contact

lvnalencz [ at ] protonmail.com

Attention as Anti-Capitalist Action

Kristin Lawler – contact

kristinlawler [ at ] mac.com

“Burnout” and the Politics of Attention

D. Graham Burnett – contact

davidgrahamburnett [ at ] gmail.com

Attention and Platforms for Direct Political Action

Carlos Montemayor – contact

carlosmromo [ at ] gmail.com

Trapping Attention and Attentional Traps

Adam Jasper – contact

adamjasper [ at ] gmail.com