My Attention Is Not For Free
Attention is currency, cognitive control, and identity. Focusing is a decision and a habit. It is the state of applying ourselves to concepts and actions, an interface of sorts that shapes our perception.
Attention is, in a sense, morality, a personal guidance system of hierarchies and priorities. Memory and familiarity often summon our attention to a narrow, oriented, and curated observation of the elements around us in a manner in which our environment resonate our sense of self in every fight, fly, or connect situation.
But what is the sense of attention? How does it “feel” when we select, focus, observe, and connect with the object of interest?
I found my answer in the words of the Greek poet Odysseas Elytis: “Doubtless for each one of us there is a separate, irreplaceable sense which if one does not find it and isolate it on time and cohabit with it later, to fill it with visible acts, one is lost.” – The Little Seafarer.
It is this separate, irreplaceable sense of embodied intention characterizing the way you are, and I am in the process of cognition, creation, and evolution. It feels like me, in other words. It reinforces my sense of identity when I select, isolate and connect with the object of interest, leaving the rest of the world to fade in the background.
The images in this series initially represent instant handshakes of an intention with the reality of places I consider home. Athens, Lemnos, and New York sparked and shaped my attention, each in their way, overlapping, at times, in my consciousness, fusing a sense of timelessness and non-locality into a kaleidoscope of curiosities. I am the sum of my attention.
Our Attention: Quantified – Commodified – Targeted – Disrupted.
Attention is currency, cognitive control, and identity. Focusing is a decision and a habit. It is the state of applying ourselves to concepts and actions, an interface of sorts that shapes our perception.
Attention is, in a sense, morality, a personal guidance system of hierarchies and priorities. Memory and familiarity often summon our attention to a narrow, oriented, and curated observation of the elements around us in a manner in which our environment resonate our sense of self in every fight, fly, or connect situation.
But what is the sense of attention? How does it “feel” when we select, focus, observe, and connect with the object of interest?
I found my answer in the words of the Greek poet Odysseas Elytis: “Doubtless for each one of us there is a separate, irreplaceable sense which if one does not find it and isolate it on time and cohabit with it later, to fill it with visible acts, one is lost.” – The Little Seafarer.
It is this separate, irreplaceable sense of embodied intention characterizing the way you are, and I am in the process of cognition, creation, and evolution. It feels like me, in other words. It reinforces my sense of identity when I select, isolate and connect with the object of interest, leaving the rest of the world to fade in the background.
The images in this series initially represent instant handshakes of an intention with the reality of places I consider home. Athens, Lemnos, and New York sparked and shaped my attention, each in their way, overlapping, at times, in my consciousness, fusing a sense of timelessness and non-locality into a kaleidoscope of curiosities. I am the sum of my attention.
Our Attention: Quantified – Commodified – Targeted – Disrupted.