I have just finished Attensity. It is a book created by the American collective The Friends of Attention.
I found the idea of deliberately making Attention Sanctuaries interesting. More particularly, the advice to work explicitly and deliberately with people to agree what they are.
A new zine
I often make zines for projects and workshops. So I have made one based on that series of basic questions that the Friends mentioned.
This video show the 8 pages and explains the content.
You can download a free PDF of the latest version of the zine Playing With Attention Zine.
I’d recommend printing it on A3 paper but the version in the video is on A4 so it is still usable at that scale.
Prototyping
This is just a prototype made over the weekend. It seems to cover the main plot made in the book.
The two things I would say now are, firstly, use it with people to talk and share ideas. The need for a deliberate sense of place and purpose matters. Without any shared rules or ideas, it is impossible to be serious or playful with each other. The making of rules and boundaries is a matter of both respect and kindness. These things reduce anxiety and increase the possibility of achieving something new together.
Secondly, do think about the idea of the swirl. The attention and distraction matter. We need to be comfortable with paying attention deeply and letting go.
One of the main criticisms of Attention made in the book is that we have a very mechanistic sense of attention. This was developed and researched for military reasons during the Cold War.
Attention, in this sense, is a focused interaction task. Looking for the pixel or light that changes and quickly pressing a button in reaction.
What we need to explore is a broader sense of attention.
The zine is my first way of thinking about that.