School of Radical Attention – Lab

Notes from attending ‘Attention Lab 1′ at the School of Radical Attention in Brooklyn. The event included two guided exercise and a few guided discussions between groups of two, four, half or all of the 40 odd participants. Introductory conversations while waiting for the lab to begin covered themes around the question of why each person chose to attend. One described a group of friends and their ‘luddite club’ with gatherings requiring the sequestering of everyone’s cell phone. Another described childhood ‘Amish weekends’ where the family lived without electricity, inspired by a stay at a friend’s off-grid cabin. The first attendee had given up ‘short form videos’ for lent. We were all seemingly self selected by our ambivalence or aversion to social media and contemporary modes of advertisement.

What is attention? All were asked to offer a definition to a partner. I chose ‘halfway between awareness and concentration.’ Some described qualities or impacts of attention. No consensus was sought but people were encouraged to share their definitions to the group. What followed was modeled after a performance art ‘score’ (various definitions linked) and based on Langston Hughes’ poem Freedom’s Plow.

Many Hands, Light Work

Instructions: pair off. Step one – look at one’s own hand. Step two – close eyes and feel/sense one’s own hand. Step three – feel/sense one’s own hand while looking at partner’s hand. My notes from this exercise:

• 1 – While looking at my hand) Is movement cheating? I look at both sides of my hand. Not sure which one is my life line.
• 2 – While feeling my hand) Pulse and blood pressure. No really, is movement cheating? My nails feel like voids on the surface of my hand.
• 3 – Looking/feeling) Two minds diverge, flitting back and forth, across and between

These notes were shared in groups of four, with each reading reflections from one step at a time.

Attention and Place

The group then split in two – half remaining inside for prompted conversations/interviews in pairs. My group ventured outside but first read an excerpt form Georges Perec’s An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (pp 5-6). Step one – venture out into the neighborhood (DUMBO) and find a spot to sit. Step two – observe the ‘infraordinary’ and take notes. Step three – return indoors and share notes. Attend to the sense of place you create in the collective. My notes:

• Brooklyn bound Q/N train
• Manhattan bound D/B train
• two blue ‘GU’ shopping bags
• hyperactive taillight on a delivery ebike
• 12 high-watt cool color bulbs light up the hot dog stand
• Brooklyn bound N/Q train
• two glowing orbs at corner of old brick factory turned lofts
• searching selfie with bridge in background
• bar mood lighting drifts out to sidewalk only to be battered back by scaffold lights
• a blue elephant plastered to the side of trash can – mascot for the neighborhood – proclaims “business restrooms are for customers only!”
• authoritative voice gives direction, seconded by a plaintive “c’mon guys” from a chaperone
• ambitious photographers blocking traffic and testing long exposures
• double parked pick-ups and drop-offs

In groups of four or five each read out a line, one at a time, in a circle. When completed, the twenty or so shared reflections on the exercise and experience.

Closing Thoughts

The lab closed with all participants in one circle and a reference to the cause of the School – to counter the negative effects of the ‘attention extraction economy’. People shared platitudes of the negative effects of social media and cell phone use. The lab tries to expand the definition of attention, and provide their preferred metaphor from Henry James’ Winds of the Dove: so crystal-clean the great empty cup of attention that he set between them on the table. We were all invited to imagine a crystal bowl in the center of the circle and asked to share in pairs what form or example of attention we would want to add to the bowl. Then a few examples from past submissions were offered out to the group to preempt questions or blocks.

I couldn’t think of anything except mild resentment at the use of a ‘crystal bowl’ to represent an empty void or blank canvas. Marshall McLuhan said light was pure information, which I interpreted to mean it is the only medium that did not have a message. Except it does – it changes everything about how we perceive the world around us.

I shared something like “a crystal glass is never empty or neutral, it transmits something to guide you in what you put in”. It was intended as mild criticism of the prompt, but just came out muddled and flat. Mind you, forty people had to share so no one response was lingered on.

The School of Radical Attention provides Level 2 and 3 workshops as well, which I hope to attend soon.