Both creating and receiving art demand skilled labor on attention
Evidence
Our aesthetic experiences also relate to the laboratory in the etymological sense of the term, in that they are the place of a labour. On the side of the ‘creator’ – which, along with Étienne Souriau, we would do well to think of as an ‘instigator’ – even the art of improvisation or the found object, which establish an important role for serendipity, are largely based on a sedimentation of the efforts necessary to bring about interesting encounters or discoveries. The participation of the reader, the listener or the spectator, are also a kind of ‘labour’ in that all our aesthetic experiences constitute, each in its own way, a certain challenge brought to our attention capabilities (a challenge to our tolerance for classification delay): we are invited to labour on ourselves to raise our sensitivity, our sentiments, and our understanding to the level of the programme that the work offers us. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 435
Categorization
- DEFINE: Reframes ‘laboratory’ etymologically as a place of labor and renames artists as ‘instigators’ after Souriau.
- XREF: Reconnects to the attention-ecology project and older debates over aesthetic labor and reception theory. — connects to: Attending to a work can itself constitute an artistic act — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 437; Great art creates attentional situations, not just artifacts — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!: A Manifesto of the…, 383; Artworks function as training apparatuses for deliberately directing attention — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 387 (+6 more)
Broader Connections
- Great art creates attentional situations, not just artifacts
#expands(0.95) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 383 - Artworks function as training apparatuses for deliberately directing attention
#corroborates(0.95) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 387 - Artistic activity is a distinct training ground for free attention
#corroborates(0.92) - Artworks can function as prostheses that train attention on the familiar environment
#corroborates(0.90) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 365 - Attention itself constitutes productive labor that generates value
#expands(0.90) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 148 - Looking at an object constitutes labor that increases its value
#corroborates(0.85) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 145 - Everyday moments of attention can be framed and shared as art experiences
#corroborates(0.80) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 372