Attention in aesthetic experience historically derives from prayer

Evidence

Finally, from the moment that our aesthetic experiences come to be situated beyond and before the principle of economy – in the suspense of a classification delay where the urgency of action briefly gives way to the unknown of contemplation – a third kind of attitude necessary to the constitution of the aesthetic laboratory reveals itself as intimately connected with that inactive activity that is prayer (if we are willing to read ‘lab-oratory’ as the place of a labour orientated towards oration). — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 436

Categorization

• XREF: Connects sustained attention to its medieval religious, contemplative origins — links to Carr and the deep-reading tradition. — connects to: Embodied practice constitutes a precondition for religious experience; Modern scattered attention inverts monastic cultivation of deep focus — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1142; Attention’s goal is anthesis, an irreversible flowering into communion — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!: A Manifesto of the…, 474 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Embodied practice constitutes a precondition for religious experience #expands (0.75)
• Attention’s goal is anthesis, an irreversible flowering into communion #expands (0.72) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 474
• Daily moral attention to sins governs the ability to pray #qualifies (0.72) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 876
• Modern scattered attention inverts monastic cultivation of deep focus #qualifies (0.70) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1142
• Artworks can function as prostheses that train attention on the familiar environment #complicates (0.70) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 365