Art’s core function is holding open contemplative space against distraction.

Evidence

It means, as she puts it, creating “a structure…that holds open a contemplative space against the pressures of habit, familiarity, and distraction that constantly threaten to close it.” Art is, in effect, an “attention holding architecture.” — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 375

Categorization

• DEFINE: The chapter’s operative definition of art as ‘attention holding architecture’ — a directly testable, falsifiable claim about art’s function.
• XREF: Parallels Berger/Proust framing of ‘attention forms the ground not just for love, but for ethics’ echoing Simone Weil’s attention-as-prayer ethics.