[...]oad, on the ="trms">generalized ethic of “getting ahead,” on the celebration of aggressiveness, (="ppl">="ppl">Crary poses that it is nonsensical to pathologize attention in this culture, a double bind, in which the individual is caught between subjective dislocations of ="trms">modernization and imperative for institutional discipline and productivity)
(Miller ='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Zoumana) ...the unconscious as part of a ="trms">system in which ‘automatic’ behaviour was reciprocally ="trms">intertwined with the changing needs of conscious activity, in="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">cluding attention. in contrast to the custodial ="ppl">Freudian ="trms">interpretation, many 19th century psychologists saw the unconscious as “actively generating the processes which are ="trms">integral to ="trms">memory, perception, and behaviour. its contents are inaccessible not, as in psychoanalytic theory, because they are held in strenuously preventive detention but, more ="trms">interestingly, because the effective implementation of cognition and conduct does not actually require comprehensive awareness.
="ppl">Darwin='lgc'>: a certain kind of reactive attention was believed to be an essential part of human biology, ="trms">systematic ="trms">response to novel stimuli (visual, olfactory, or auditory)
="prgrph">-an attentive observer might appear motionless
="prgrph">-an ideo-motor ="trms">network of forces ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> that which immobilizes
(the structural psychology of) as="trms">sociationism (theories of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge)
institutional discourse
="trms">techniques of the subject
attention (='lgc'>='lgc'>~= will) ='lgc'>='lgc'>~/= consciousness
(noncoincidence of attention with consciousness)
='lgc'><='lgc'>-- ="trms">modern shift to semantic and ="trms">semiotic frameworks of analysis
(from ="trms">epistemology ='lgc'>--to='lgc'>='lgc'>--> hermeneutics ='lgc'>: ="ppl">Mallarme, ="ppl">Nietzsche, ="ppl">Peirce, ="ppl">Wittgenstein, ="ppl">Heidegger ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the ="trms">question of how a subject is provisionally constructed through ="trms">language and other ="trms">systems of ="trms">social meaning and value ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> termination of various analysis of consciousness ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">epistemological crisis
observer (once understood in terms of the essential subjectivity of vision) ='lgc'>==> attention became constitutive (and destabilizing) component of perception
unmediated givenness of sense ="trms">data ='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> cognition
="trms">community of ="trms">interpretation ='lgc'>: a shifting and ="trms">intervening space of ="trms">socially ="trms">articulated psychological functions, institutional imperative, and a wide range of ="trms">techniques, practices, and discourses relating to the perceptual experience of a subject in time ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> forms of exteriority in ="trms">modernity's account of perception
eschatological dream of 19th century ='lgc'>: “to make this knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge of man exist so that man could be liberated by it from his alienation, liberated from all the determinations of which he was not the master” ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> one made of man an object of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge so that man could become subject of his own liberty and of his own existence
="prgrph">-="ppl">="ppl">Foucault
exercise of a sovereign and attentive will ='lgc'>[we see this in ="ppl">Olearius='lgc'>] ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> claiming subject's self-possession ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> conscious organizer of that perceptible ="trms">world ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> master
(="ppl">Nietzsche='lgc'>:) “i am free” ='lgc'>==> “he must obey” ='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the inward certainty that obedience will be rendered ='lgc'>='lgc'>-->='lgc'>{ ='strcls'>*ex="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusively='lgc'>: (the unconditional evaluation that) ‘this and nothing else is necessary now’
co-="trms">presence of the ="trms">world (can never be guaranteed ='lgc'>[by ="trms">scientific psychology='lgc'>])
='lgc'><== attentiveness is continuous with distraction, reverie, dis="trms">sociation, trance,
='at'>@="nms">apass, work on attention is so ="trms">interesting because it is part of the ="trms">history of modality of contemplation about processes and activities of the body
the neo-="ppl">Kantian legacy of a dis="trms">interested ="trms">aesthetic perception ='lgc'>--desire='lgc'>='lgc'>--> to escape bodily time (and its vagaries)
="lsts lst1">•(="ppl">Hume's) artist='lgc'>: someone in whom “="trms">nature has forgotten to attach their faculty for perception to their faculty for action” (='lgc'><='lgc'>-- sounds familiar='qstn'>? “free” artistic perception)
="lsts lst1">•(for Roger Fry='lgc'>:) “="trms">imaginative life” is about contemplation disconnected from the possibility of action (='lgc'>=/= instinctive reactions to sensible objects and their accompanying emotions ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= ="trms">animal)='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a bad ="trms">fable
="trms">modernist art='lgc'>: ='strcls'>*timeless perception='strcls'>* ='lgc'>[formal conditions of the possibility of vision, pure form operates as a principle of structure, Krauss outlines how temporality is ex="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">cluded='lgc'>] ='lgc'>=/= mundane or quotidian forms of seeing or ="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">listening ='lgc'>[the object bounded by its c="trms">ontours, spurred/hated by ="trms">modernism='lgc'>]
whenever we try to look at or ="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">listen to one thing for too long the attention (containing within itself the conditions for its own dis="trms">integration) inevitably reaches a threshold at which it breaks down='lgc'>[='lgc'><='lgc'>-- a game i used to play as a ="trms">child, playing with attention and distraction, mutating myself into a state of trance or autohypnosis, absorbed, diverted, nebulous ='lgc'>=/= ="trms">socially adaptive subject='lgc'>] ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*perceptual identity='strcls'>* (of its object) begins to deteriorate (& paralysis of will='qstn'>?) ='lgc'>[_='thdf'>that is why in ="trms">spectacle visual regimes the duration of perception must be regulated in short ="trms">intervals='lgc'>]
attention is thermodynamic ='lgc'>: a given force could assume more than ine form
partial sleep ='lgc'><='lgc'>='lgc'>--> abnormal fixation
(i am cautious at every turn to capture my own) ='strcls'>*experience of distraction='strcls'>* is part of ="nms">ajayeb studies. because it has to do with modes of attention and its persian ="trms">history
perception is a dream
(an account of) ='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]="trms">modernity='lgc'>: a process of fragmentation and destruction in which pre="trms">modern forms of wholeness and ="trms">integrity were irretrievably broken up or degraded through ="trms">technological, ="trms"nttrm="disturban">urban, and economic reorganization
='lgc'>==> a “decay” in the capacity for perception ='lgc'>[='lgc'><='lgc'>-- to be careful in working for ="nms">ajayeb not to romanticize (elitist and regressive fantasy of ="trms">communal ="trms">relations in) pre="trms">modern modalities of looking/="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">listening as richer, deeper, or more valuable ='lgc'>:
="trms">modern ="trms"nttrm="disturban">urban life as “swift and continuous shift of external and ="trms">internal stimuli” ='lgc'>=/= pre="trms">modern's “slower, more habitual, more smoothly flowing rhythm of the sensory-mental phase"='lgc'>]
(sensory mental schema)
understanding of distraction within a larger deterioration of experience
="prgrph">-distraction (not as a product of decay or ="trms">anthropy, rather) as a mean to overcome bankruptcy of bourgeois ="trms">aesthetic (late 19th century)='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•="ppl">Benjamin='lgc'>: absorbed contemplation purified of the ="trms">excess stimuli of ="trms">modernity
="lsts lst1">•="ppl">Adorno='lgc'>: distraction as regression='lgc'>: perception that is “arrested in the infantile ="trms">stage” ='lgc'>=/= “deep concentration”
="lsts lst1">•="ppl">Rilke='lgc'>: authentic attention as precious and rare survival of the lost ideal of artistic absorption in work now exiled to the margins of mechanized and ="trms">routinized ="trms">world
="lsts lst1">•Rodin='lgc'>: gazing of the handworker
="prgrph">-
='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> “reception in a state of distraction”, (='lgc'><== absorption is psychologically grounded perception) ='lgc'>=/= ="ppl">="ppl">Crary arguing that attention and distraction ceaselessly flowing into one another on the same continuum (of ="trms">social field)
='lgc'>[tales of understanding='lgc'>]-='strcls'>*
="lsts lst1">•what are the cognites of ‘contemplation’ (in german or ="trms">farsi)='qstn'>?
the theological resonances of this latinate word ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> contemplation='lgc'>: viewing/considering with continued attention; going into the temple, into the sphere of the holy, into the deep roots of things, into their creative ground
(to oppose) contemporary modes of distraction
="trms">modern forms of ="trms">interiority, absorption, psychic isolation
Riegl's dream of a ="trms">world in which art would be inseparable from an ="trms">imaginary democratic harmony of individual and ="trms">community (='lgc'>=/= ="nms">harem)
collective attention (central attentive mass audience, 1900) ='lgc'>: cinema
rational attention='lgc'>: attention linked to thought, one's telescope on object
(for ="ppl">Nietzsche='lgc'>:) attention='lgc'>: possibility of an absorption ='lgc'>==> forgetting ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> life-affirmative ='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> “focusing on the ="trms">present moment”
final virtue of ="trms">modern man='lgc'>: ='strcls'>*="trms">presence of mind='strcls'>* ='lgc'>--="ppl">Nietzsche='lgc'>='lgc'>--> necessary part of the (="trms">cosmopolitan) individual's functioning within a ="trms">modern ="trms">world of economic facts and qualities ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">ready at ="trms">response to the machine, af="trms">finity with the ="trms">technical, athletic political (='at'>#="trms">integration tale)
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the (="trms">serious) ="trms">modern soul is directed towards the news, focusing on the ="trms">present, to employ the moment (='at'>#="trms">presentism ='at'>#="trms">past-studies)
="lsts lst1">•="trms">fable of “to be at the ="trms">present moment”
="lsts lst1">•="trms">fable of “to adapt yourself”
perceptual acceleration of ="trms">modernized ="trms">social field (work ='lgc'>+ leisure) ='lgc'>==> new ='strcls'>*="trms">cosmopolitan individual='strcls'>* (who receives signals from many fars and nears, ="trms">="trms">equipped to ‘attend’ to messages and participate in their circulation ☆ ='at'>#face="trms">book='qstn'>? ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> diffuse ="trms">anxiety of the other-directed person ='lgc'>: gyroscope ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> radar)
="ppl">Arendt='lgc'>:
="trms">modernity='lgc'>: fabricating rendered meaningless ='lgc'>=/= contemplation='lgc'>: beholding the truth
‘life='lgc'> = being’ ='lgc'>==> ‘contemplation='lgc'> = truth’
="ppl">Heidegger ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> characterization of ="trms">Greek's primordial self-disclosing look ='lgc'>==> makes ="trms">presence possible ='lgc'>+ glaring predatory look ='lgc'>--of='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">modern subjects='lgc'> = objects of conquest
dystopian ="trms">story='lgc'>: a promising outburst (always of human) activity ='lgc'>[such as ="trms">science or exploration or artificial intelligence, etc.='lgc'>] that leads in the most deadlines sterile passivity ='lgc'>[such as alien predation, industrialisation of mind, global contamination, etc.='lgc'>]
(theatricalization of ="trms">scientific mistake in the Handmaid TV series='lgc'>: ="trms">scientific human progress failing ='lgc'>==> abolishing the distinction between private and public consciousness ='lgc'>}='lgc'><='lgc'>-- optics of ="trms">narcissistic scepticism ='lgc'><== psychological shock of the temporality of process)
19th century='lgc'>: ="ppl">Schopenhauer's early grasp of the link between attention and perceptual dis="trms">integration
(for ="ppl">Schopenhauer='lgc'>: ='lgc'>[cognitive chaos of='lgc'>] cultural ="trms">modernity='lgc'>:) temporality ='lgc'>==> subjective anguish
='lgc'>[title='lgc'>]
the timing of intellect
(how come usually intellect does not have time='qstn'>? leaps out of time)
(chaotic successiveness of) perceptions are rendered intellectually coherent ='lgc'>--(="ppl">Schopenhauer)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (unmotivated movement of the) will holds them together ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= body='lgc'>: will's most immediate objectified form
='lgc'>}='lgc'>==> (="trms">modernism's) looking='lgc'>: a purified perception suspended from time and the body's economy
telegram, Face="trms">book
extremely heterogeneous mixture of fragments of re="trms">presentations of every kind constantly crossing one another
="prgrph">-ceaseless pulsing and animations of the body ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> temporality of the bodies in ="nms">Tehran
='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> possibility of subjective reflection (in a ="ppl">Cartesian sense) ='and'>& as="trms">sociation of discrete elements
distraction ='lgc'><='lgc'>--sug="trms">gesting='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">sublimation
(from ="ppl">Descartes to ="ppl">Kant) consciousness/cogito='lgc'> = ground of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge and certitude (= self-="trms">present subject) ='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (="ppl">Schopenhauer recognizing) ending the un="trms">questioned foundational ="trms">priority of consciousness ='lgc'>==> attention (emerges as a problem)
broken attention
(idea for video documentation='lgc'>: a lagging mirror attached in front of the camera's lenses)
(a ="trms">fable)
looking out the window
perceive a landscape
light of consciousness
distribute over the landscape
then i try
to apprehend a single tree branch
the consciousness that the rest of the landscape was deployed then fades
diminishes into as="trms">sociational debris
into disappearance of re="trms">presentations
real nexus of psychic life
permeated colored enlivened feelings
distribution of feelings
the gradual un="trms">folding
efforts of attention
are forms of volitional activity
impulsive energy to individual imagery
permit them to fade away
therefore, the tree branch, the window, is a process
Dilthey
in ="ppl">Peirce='lgc'>:
='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]attention='lgc'> = anti-optical act of selection ='lgc'>[='lgc'>=/= (in traditional ="trms">epistemological thought) singling out a contemplative object='lgc'>], “the power by which thought at one time is connected with and made to relate to thought at another time”
='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*firstness='lgc'>: self-immediacy, absolute ="trms">presence (before synthesis and ="trms">differentiation) ='lgc'>~ nonreferenciality (='lgc'>=/= perception, attention ="trms">consumed/constituted in time ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= continuous quantity='lgc'> = ='strcls'>*secondness)
using a more act-oriented term “thought” instead of “consciousness”
dis="trms">sociation
anaesthesia
="trms">hallucination
multiple selves
='lgc'>--James='lgc'>='lgc'>--> temporal model of mind='lgc'>: ‘stream’
(='lgc'>=/= scenic model of mind)
='lgc'>[this was part of a larger institutional field in which ="trms">scientific psychology generally was abandoning ‘elemental’ conceptions of consciousness in favour of operational or functional models='lgc'>]
='lgc'>==> observer='lgc'>: an artist confronted with the primordial chaos of sensation ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (ethics of) overlapping common choices (made of autonomous subjects ='lgc'>[='lgc'>='lgc'>--> you can see James seeking to lessen the shock of recent works in ="trms">science and psychology for an American middle-class ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">readership='lgc'>])
(William James='lgc'>:) irreducible p="trms"nttrm="failure,blur,plur,lurk,tallur,slur">lurality of experience ='lgc'>==> (think in terms of) fluidity and immobilization
='mywrk'>my work is usually unformed and informal='lgc'>: a speaking properly in terms of irradiated strata, an aggregate
emergence of increasingly powerful ="trms">technologies and institutions that would determine and enforce ='strcls'>*externally='strcls'>* the objects of attention for mass population ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">history of cinema
="lsts lst1">•disciplinary framework='lgc'>: it is the aim of the teacher to fix the attention of the pupils ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> habit of attention becomes amenable to the will of the teacher
attention was an indispensable component of the “normal” and “rational” subject of the late 19th century industrial ="trms">society, yet had a disturbing proximity to “pathological” and “irrational” effects.
="prgrph">-="ppl">="ppl">Crary
="ppl">Simondon, mold ='and'>& modulation
="ppl">Deleuze, on ="trms">fold
by the end of 19th century attention became an inadequate simulation of (an Archimedean) point of stability from which consciousness could know the ="trms">world ='lgc'>[rather='lgc'>] it opened to flux and absence (='lgc'>=/= perceptual fixity, certainty of ="trms">presence) ='lgc'>==> subject-object scattered provisional existence
(extreme model of a) ='strcls'>*="trms">technology of attention='strcls'>* ='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Zoumana ='lgc'>[spiritism, ='strcls'>*action at a distance='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> curse, ,='lgc'>]
hypnosis ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> unsettling outlines of of a subject whose makeup could evade both intellectual and institutional mastery ='lgc'>+ precariousness and malleability of (what had been thought of as) consciousness
hypnosis adjacent to attention='qstn'>?! intense refocusing and narrowing of attention ='lgc'>+ inhibition of motor ="trms">responses
focalization='lgc'>: concentrating one's attention on some ="trms">specific object
sustained looking at a single point (i used to do as a ="trms">child) ='lgc'>==> dramatic reorganization of consciousness
="ppl">="ppl">Crary in his ="trms">book, Suspension of Perception, shows how high ="trms">science and peripheral pseudo="trms">science never had clear-cut distinctions in the 19th century. that there were a complex and shifting ="trms">relation of ="trms">mutual exchange between the “luminous” physics with a huge range of other “darker” ideas about ‘action in a distance’ enacted in spiritism
='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Zoumana
hypnosis ='and'>& sug="trms">gestion ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> automatic processes (inferior, more instinctual, continuous with ="trms">animality), “mental decapitation” ='lgc'>=/= ration elicit patient with conscious participating will power ='lgc'>[='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="ppl">="ppl">Star Wars will of the weaker and less independent, powerful ="trms">natures exercise over weaker ones, jedi ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> strance states (of the weaker ones)='lgc'>: being ="trms">instrument of undisguised power ='lgc'>--="ppl">="ppl">Stengers='lgc'>='lgc'>--> deviant types of behavioural control='lgc'>]
(hypnosis still being rese="trms"nttrm="search">arched on but) ideologically could not be acknowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edged as a constitutive part of human ="trms">sciences
='lgc'>==> (stigmata of critical ="trms">position ='lgc'>[='at'>@="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Alice,Shariati">Ali; follow it in ="ppl">Marxism='lgc'>]='lgc'>:)
volitional human action modified by external forces
="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Alice,Shariati">Ali's tacit appeal to state secret, military secret ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> importance of low-level effects of sug="trms">gestion and influence in contemporary global culture (="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Alice,Shariati">Ali's ="trms">interest)
the role ‘sug="trms">gestion’ plays in a ="trms">society of ="trms">communication ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the effects of='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•="trms">fashion
="lsts lst1">•="trms">mimesis
="lsts lst1">•mass psychology
="lsts lst1">•media-related contagions
='lgc'>+ influences of all kind ='lgc'>==> “="trms">oblige” us
='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='thdf'>the ='thdf'>assumption that attention can be controlled for ="trms">specific ends
(over a hundred years) underpinning institutional strategies has been the ="trms">position that ='strcls'>*human subjects have determinate psychological capacities and functions that might be susceptible to ="trms">technological management='strcls'>*
attention has been both='lgc'>: strategy of control ='and'>& locus of resistance and drift
(by the end of 20th century) the attentive subject is part of an ‘="trms">internalization’ of disciplinary imperative ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> individuals are made more directly ="trms">responsible for their own efficient or profitable utilization
="ppl">="ppl">Foucault's ="trms">society of discipline
="ppl">Guy ="ppl">Debord's ="trms">society of ="trms">spectacle
(="ppl">Guy ="ppl">Debord's) ='strcls'>*="trms">spectacle='lgc'>: a development of a ="trms">technology of separation='strcls'>*, ='lgc'>[multiple strategies of isolation='lgc'>] ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (capitalism's restructuring of) ="trms">society without ="trms">community
='lgc'>+
(="ppl">="ppl">Foucault's) ='lgc'>[production of='lgc'>] docile bodies ='lgc'>~='lgc'>{ body='lgc'> = political force ='lgc'>}
='lgc'>+
(='lgc'><== Weber's) inner isolation of individual ='lgc'>[='lgc'><='lgc'>==> capita="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list ="trms">modernity='lgc'>]
management of attention [...]