The Attention Studio is a lab class where we will engage in protocols and practices of sustained attention, most often in relation to works of art. Through these experiments we will explore the way objects and performances choreograph our attention, and study the internal movements of our own response. Our collective work will engage questions of attention that reach beyond immediate perception into considerations of aesthetics and politics including contemporary spectacle, distraction, and the attention economy as well as forms of contemplation, embodiment and care. We will read in the traditional literature of attention (William James, Simone Weil) and also engage Black Feminist, Queer, and Indigenous perspectives (Sarah Ahmed, Gloria Anzaldúa, Sarah Jackson, Audre Lorde, and others). Using what we learn through these experiences and readings, we will create new experimental practices of attention and share them with each other.
Learning Outcomes:
Through practices of sustained attention we will deepen our individual attentional capacities for focus and awareness and we will come to know the role attention plays in our life and work.
By engaging in collective research we will gain a grounded understanding of the way attention has been understood and be able to use this in developing our own ideas.
By creating experimental practices of attention we will develop the ability to embody knowledge in new ways.
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Prerequisites: Please email instructor (salrandolph@bennington.edu) with a statement of interest. Preference will be given to students who email on a first come first serve basis
Course Level: 4000-level
Credits: 4
W 2:10PM - 5:50PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 15
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: Advancement of Public Action , All courses , Fully In-Person
Tags: aesthetics , attention , experimental , perception , politics , practice