Literary studies must be reinvented, not merely recovered, as an attentional practice.

Evidence

Part of the reason I work this way is because I find existing things infinitely more interesting than anything I could possibly make. The Bureau of Suspended Objects was really just an excuse for me to stare at the amazing things in the dump—a Nintendo Power Glove, a jumble of bicentennial-edition 7UP cans, a bank ledger from 1906—and to give each object the attention it was due. This near-paralyzing fascination with one’s subject is something I’ve termed the “observational eros.” — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 52 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Education can also be regarded as accumulated attention capital, the attention one pays to oneself and that teachers, parents, and others have paid to you in relation to your schooling. Knowledge itself is reified attention capital, the attention that has been focused on a particular topic, and which in turn earns interest as the springboard for further knowledge-production. — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 13 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Attention can be deliberately wielded, not just reclaimed; Any moment that attracts attention can be reframed as an art experience — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 372; Attention itself can be the creative medium, not just the output — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 52 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Attention itself can be the creative medium, not just the output #corroborates (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 52
• Attention can be deliberately wielded, not just reclaimed #expands (0.82)
• Education and knowledge are reified forms of accumulated attention #complicates (0.72) — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 13
• Any moment that attracts attention can be reframed as an art experience #expands (0.70) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 372