ATTENTION LABS
a non-profit experiential workshop
designed by the Friends of Attention
to reconnect communities to the powers
of Radical Human Attention
“This work is so valuable. Coming in, I only had a cursory understanding of what it was — besides curiosity. Bringing attention to the Attention Economy in such an intentional way was REALLY POWERFUL.”
“A profoundly personal experience that at the same time connects you with others and creates a community you will not expect… “
“A unique workshop on how to emancipate your attention and reclaim it from the Attention Economy.”
“I think something magical happened…“
Register
for upcoming Labs
We live in an “Attention Economy,”
a trillion-dollar industry that seeks to monetize our every waking moment
and “frack” human eyeballs for commercial gain.
In a world where ATTENTION, our most precious human asset,
is bought and sold by powerful and often invisible actors, and where
technological change has outpaced our ability to adapt to changing social conditions,
we find ourselves with ever-fewer tools and spaces to collectively imagine
the world we wish to inhabit.
In response, we, the Friends of Attention,
an underground network of creatives, educators and actual friends who share an interest
in the puzzles and promises of the attentive mind and the directed senses,
present to you the…
✺ ✺ ✺
ATTENTION LABS
our work to devise, recover, activate and share
forms of radical human attention
that are resistant to commodification
What are the Attention Labs?
☞ community-based/open-public, youth/adult-oriented workshops
☞ spaces for exploration and experimentation
☞ a non-profit project, free of charge
What do we do at the Labs?
✎ have conversations and engage in experimental practices in
the power, beauty and potential of human attention
under the guidance of attention activists, artists and scholars
What for?
✽ empower attentional agency
✽ engage attentional resources through practice
✽ encourage historical and critical analysis of attention
in order to
bring forth the astonishing reality of things and persons
thereby creating a more humane, compassionate and empowered future
Upcoming Events:
Attention Lab Manhattan
Prime Produce Cooperative
424 W 54th St
June 18th, 1pm-4pm
Attention Lab Brooklyn
138 South Oxford St, Brooklyn
July 8th, 12-3pm
Attention Labs Test Kitchen #2
138 South Oxford St, Brooklyn
July 22nd, 12-3pm
The Test Kitchen is a collaborative workshop dedicated to the development and implementation of new Practices of Attention. Participants will experiment with scripts, guided exercises, manuals, choreographies, poems and other media as diverse forms of “structured experience.” Through discussions and group activities, we will explore the use of attentional practices in activist organizing, mediation, facilitation and the creation of social change.
Past Labs:
Attention Lab Brooklyn
138 South Oxford St, Brooklyn
April 29th, 2-4:30pm
Rio de Janeiro Lab
Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage
April 15th, 2-5pm
Monira Foundation Lab #3
Mana Contemporary, Jersey City
25 March 2023
2pm — 5pm
Attention Labs “Test Kitchen“
520 8th Ave, 3rd Floor, Manhattan
18 March 2023
3pm — 5:30pm
The inaugural “Test Kitchen” was a collaborative workshop dedicated to the development and implementation of new Practices of Attention. Participants experimented with scripts, guided exercises, manuals, choreographies, poems and other media as diverse forms of “structured experience.” Through discussions and group activities, we explored the use of attentional practices in activist organizing, mediation, facilitation and the creation of social change. Our efforts produced over a dozen new Practices of Attention, to be published on our site shortly.
Jersey City Lab #2
Priscilla Gardner Main Library, NJ
Thursday, Feb 23rd, 2023
Jersey City Lab #1
Priscilla Gardner Main Library, NJ
Feb 11th, 2023
Seattle Labs
Beacon Hill Library, WA
11 Jan & 18 Jan 2022
Monira Lab #2
Jersey City, NJ
13 Nov 2022
In partnership with Katharina Gruzei
and participating artists of Right Time, Right Place
Amplify Lab
Brooklyn, NY
18 Oct 2022
Sanctuaries of Attention
Bennington College, VT
2 Oct 2022
East Harlem Lab
Agile Learning Center NYC
6 Aug 2022
Monira Foundation Lab
Jersey City, NJ
30 July 2022
“I feel like I am leaving with my attention primed, and in tune with myself in the present moment.”
“It helped me re-frame my thinking around the things that are important to me.”
“It was highly generative, and it facilitated an opening up of attention — a stepping back from the ‘ruts’ in my attentional landscape, ruts carved by the imperative to ‘produce.’”
Democracy Prep and Mount Saint Vincent Labs
American Academy of Arts and Letters
Manhattan, NY
March and April 2022
