Y: Ecology of Attention
What does it mean to pay attention to something?
How do we direct our attention? Who observes what, why, and how much time is spent on this observation? What do we pay attention to, what do we look at, what do we care about?
The topic of attention is particularly associated with the term "economy of attention". Contemporary technologies manipulate our attention; they change its structure and shape (new) ways of looking so that time spent looking at something (anything) can be used as a monetizable activity. But there is much more to the planes of giving and receiving attention; it is not just about watching various content on social media and media in general, but also the attention we give to our loved ones or the attention we give to ourselves. To grasp such levels associated with attention more broadly, the cultural theorist Yves Citton turns the term “economy of attention” into “ecology of attention.” In his concept, attention becomes a universal currency of collective value.
The combined event Y: Ecology of Attention focused on ways of observing and thinking towards the other - whether towards the artists and their work, or towards the audience. The shared environment of the Y: The Ecology of Attention offered a space in which we can still be fragile and vulnerable which doesn't necessarily imply weakness. Vulnerability and fragility can perhaps instead be a privilege that helps to reform the possibilities of being together (again).
ARTISTS 3G(enerations) (FR), Anto_nie & Alex Sihelská, Barbora Haplová & Filip Kominik, Julian Weber (DE), Trigger Collective (CZ)
CURATORS Anna Chrtková, Petr Dlouhý, Lena Szirmay-Kalos
GRAPHIC DESIGN Adrienn Czaszar
PHOTO Libor Galia
SUPPORTED BY Česko-německý fond budoucnosti, the Zero Point Festival, MM Praxis
