Art can function as attention-holding architecture against distraction

Evidence

THESE LAST FEW projects have something important in common. In each, the artist creates a structure—whether that’s a map or a cordoned-off area (or even a lowly set of shelves!)—that holds open a contemplative space against the pressures of habit, familiarity, and distraction that constantly threaten to close it. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 58

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Odell’s ‘attention-holding architecture’ — a structure that holds contemplative space open — one of the three redirections toward designed space.
• XREF: connects to: Art’s perfection increases as human intention drops away from it — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2735; Aesthetic experience succeeds or fails on attentional quality, not object traits — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 431; Aesthetic laboratories protect attention by suspending communicational pressures — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 454 (+3 more)