The Attention Labs are an experiential, participatory workshop curriculum dedicated to the joint exploration of radical human attention. Through group attention practices and guided discussions, we create and test tools to build sanctuaries of attention — as well as networks of solidarity to sustain them.

Register for our DUMBO Lab HERE.

In an effort to explore alternative epistemologies of knowledge rooted in taste and smell, this gathering asks participants to attend to the somatic experience of imbibing tea in/with community. Three steepings of tea will be interspersed with writing exercises that direct attention toward the sensorium and provide space to grapple with the difficulty of description. Inspired by Koo Jeong A's Odorama Cities for the Korean Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, we will draw upon our personal scent and taste memories with writing prompts that mediate olfactory and gustatory experience through other sensory modalities, such as time, texture, and landscape. Following the architectural framework of an intimacy gradient, the writing practices will invite greater vulnerability and depth of thought with each additional steeping, culminating in a group writing exercise and reading. No previous experience with tea or creative writing is required to participate.

Digital technologies, particularly the evolution of the smart phone, have profoundly reshaped contemporary notions of home. Domestic space, once understood as a private sanctuary physically bounded from the outside world has drastically transformed into a highly fluid and digitally connected sphere, radically blurring boundaries between home and public life. Remote work and workplace intrusion, home as a social media stage, home as an entertainment hub, and home as the epicenter for shopping and consumption habits are a few of the many ways in which the house has been transformed into a setting for continuous and unavoidable digital contact. 

Today, the home is the front line of attention fracking. 

This three-session virtual course will bring attention to this radical transformation of our domestic space and interrogate the implications of global connectivity taking over local intimacy. Using the very tools (laptops, tablets, smartphones etc.) and platforms we are critically examining, the seminar will bring together participants from all over the world to examine how digital intrusions have reshaped our private lives. In doing so, we will conceive spatial strategies to reimagine and sustain the life-giving sanctuaries of home and community. 

Taught by Felipe Correa, architect and founder of Somatic Collaborative, a NYC-based design practice.

The Attention Labs are an experiential, participatory workshop curriculum dedicated to the joint exploration of radical human attention. Through group attention practices and guided discussions, we create and test tools to build sanctuaries of attention — as well as networks of solidarity to sustain them.

Register for our DUMBO Lab HERE.

Digital technologies, particularly the evolution of the smart phone, have profoundly reshaped contemporary notions of home. Domestic space, once understood as a private sanctuary physically bounded from the outside world has drastically transformed into a highly fluid and digitally connected sphere, radically blurring boundaries between home and public life. Remote work and workplace intrusion, home as a social media stage, home as an entertainment hub, and home as the epicenter for shopping and consumption habits are a few of the many ways in which the house has been transformed into a setting for continuous and unavoidable digital contact. 

Today, the home is the front line of attention fracking. 

This three-session virtual course will bring attention to this radical transformation of our domestic space and interrogate the implications of global connectivity taking over local intimacy. Using the very tools (laptops, tablets, smartphones etc.) and platforms we are critically examining, the seminar will bring together participants from all over the world to examine how digital intrusions have reshaped our private lives. In doing so, we will conceive spatial strategies to reimagine and sustain the life-giving sanctuaries of home and community. 

Taught by Felipe Correa, architect and founder of Somatic Collaborative, a NYC-based design practice.

Just as a fish doesn't notice the water until it's gone, we're only now grasping the profound impact of the written word as it recedes from our lives. For centuries, text has invisibly shaped our cognition, institutions, and sense of self. Now, as AI models pen Joycean prose while humans increasingly struggle with multisyllabic words, we're witnessing an unprecedented reversal: swarms of machine intelligence processing text with superhuman ability, while adult literacy rates plummet to middle-school levels. Welcome to the Age of Detextualization.

This transformation reaches far beyond mere communication. As AI enables speech-to-data conversion and voice-activated operations, we're transitioning from a text-centric world to one where AI-mediated speech reigns supreme. This shift isn't just changing how we communicate; it's rewiring human cognition and attention at a fundamental level.

Our generation faces a crucial challenge: how to preserve the benefits of literacy as we transition to a potentially post-literate era. Can AI interfaces foster the deep engagement we associate with reading? Is it possible to maintain the clarity of thought cultivated by writing in a world of speech-to-speech communication? Or are we witnessing an inexorable trade, where machines inherit our textual capabilities while humans slip into terminal illiteracy?

This seminar will explore these questions, with special attention to an emerging paradox: as general literacy declines, the cognitive formation provided by deep reading may become even more crucial—perhaps our key to meaningful interaction with increasingly sophisticated AI models in the years ahead.

Led by Jac Mullen, writer, teacher, and former Executive Editor of The American Reader.

The Attention Labs are an experiential, participatory workshop curriculum dedicated to the joint exploration of radical human attention. Through group attention practices and guided discussions, we create and test tools to build sanctuaries of attention — as well as networks of solidarity to sustain them.

Register for our DUMBO Lab HERE.

These open sandbox hours are invite only for folks who've completed Level 3 Labs, plus friends and facilitators of SoRA.

The purpose of these hours is to create a space to deepen our familiarity with the score/practice/protocol/action-poem as an artistic medium with a rich history (in both the art world and in politics). We will refine our skills in WRITING and FACILITATING these things. This is 100% unstructured — pure play.

Just as a fish doesn't notice the water until it's gone, we're only now grasping the profound impact of the written word as it recedes from our lives. For centuries, text has invisibly shaped our cognition, institutions, and sense of self. Now, as AI models pen Joycean prose while humans increasingly struggle with multisyllabic words, we're witnessing an unprecedented reversal: swarms of machine intelligence processing text with superhuman ability, while adult literacy rates plummet to middle-school levels. Welcome to the Age of Detextualization.

This transformation reaches far beyond mere communication. As AI enables speech-to-data conversion and voice-activated operations, we're transitioning from a text-centric world to one where AI-mediated speech reigns supreme. This shift isn't just changing how we communicate; it's rewiring human cognition and attention at a fundamental level.

Our generation faces a crucial challenge: how to preserve the benefits of literacy as we transition to a potentially post-literate era. Can AI interfaces foster the deep engagement we associate with reading? Is it possible to maintain the clarity of thought cultivated by writing in a world of speech-to-speech communication? Or are we witnessing an inexorable trade, where machines inherit our textual capabilities while humans slip into terminal illiteracy?

This seminar will explore these questions, with special attention to an emerging paradox: as general literacy declines, the cognitive formation provided by deep reading may become even more crucial—perhaps our key to meaningful interaction with increasingly sophisticated AI models in the years ahead.

Led by Jac Mullen, writer, teacher, and former Executive Editor of The American Reader.

These open sandbox hours are invite only for folks who've completed Level 3 Labs, plus friends and facilitators of SoRA.

The purpose of these hours is to create a space to deepen our familiarity with the score/practice/protocol/action-poem as an artistic medium with a rich history (in both the art world and in politics). We will refine our skills in WRITING and FACILITATING these things. This is 100% unstructured — pure play.

The Attention Labs are an experiential, participatory workshop curriculum dedicated to the joint exploration of radical human attention. Through group attention practices and guided discussions, we create and test tools to build sanctuaries of attention — as well as networks of solidarity to sustain them.

Register for our DUMBO Lab HERE.

Just as a fish doesn't notice the water until it's gone, we're only now grasping the profound impact of the written word as it recedes from our lives. For centuries, text has invisibly shaped our cognition, institutions, and sense of self. Now, as AI models pen Joycean prose while humans increasingly struggle with multisyllabic words, we're witnessing an unprecedented reversal: swarms of machine intelligence processing text with superhuman ability, while adult literacy rates plummet to middle-school levels. Welcome to the Age of Detextualization.

This transformation reaches far beyond mere communication. As AI enables speech-to-data conversion and voice-activated operations, we're transitioning from a text-centric world to one where AI-mediated speech reigns supreme. This shift isn't just changing how we communicate; it's rewiring human cognition and attention at a fundamental level.

Our generation faces a crucial challenge: how to preserve the benefits of literacy as we transition to a potentially post-literate era. Can AI interfaces foster the deep engagement we associate with reading? Is it possible to maintain the clarity of thought cultivated by writing in a world of speech-to-speech communication? Or are we witnessing an inexorable trade, where machines inherit our textual capabilities while humans slip into terminal illiteracy?

This seminar will explore these questions, with special attention to an emerging paradox: as general literacy declines, the cognitive formation provided by deep reading may become even more crucial—perhaps our key to meaningful interaction with increasingly sophisticated AI models in the years ahead.

Led by Jac Mullen, writer, teacher, and former Executive Editor of The American Reader.

In a culture dominated by visual stimuli, the cultivation of listening skills often takes a backseat — yet through listening we can engage with and understand our environments in unique and powerful ways. By practicing active listening, we can connect with our surroundings more holistically. This act of listening can expand our perception, inform our spatial, ecological, and political awareness, and provide space to reflect on the passage of time.

In this 3-week course, we will use our ears to unfold a series of intentional, multi-sensory listening exercises that culminate in the creation of a sound walk. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Tarek Atoui, Hildegard Westerkamp, Francisco López, and Christina Kubisch, we will expand auditory awareness through durational exercises that incorporate drawing, movement, sounding, and learning how to direct our listening attention. You’ll also learn how to use basic recording tools and audio tour software.

The course will culminate in a public listening event, where participants can engage with audio tours in person through headphones via the guided audio tour software Echoes.

Led by composer, sound technologist, archivist, and researcher Anastasia Clarke.

In a culture dominated by visual stimuli, the cultivation of listening skills often takes a backseat — yet through listening we can engage with and understand our environments in unique and powerful ways. By practicing active listening, we can connect with our surroundings more holistically. This act of listening can expand our perception, inform our spatial, ecological, and political awareness, and provide space to reflect on the passage of time.

In this 3-week course, we will use our ears to unfold a series of intentional, multi-sensory listening exercises that culminate in the creation of a sound walk. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Tarek Atoui, Hildegard Westerkamp, Francisco López, and Christina Kubisch, we will expand auditory awareness through durational exercises that incorporate drawing, movement, sounding, and learning how to direct our listening attention. You’ll also learn how to use basic recording tools and audio tour software.

The course will culminate in a public listening event, where participants can engage with audio tours in person through headphones via the guided audio tour software Echoes.

Led by composer, sound technologist, archivist, and researcher Anastasia Clarke.

Led by acclaimed conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll, this seminar will draw on design, visual art, architecture, public policy, and even music to see trash anew. With readings from Edouard Glissant, Hannah Arendt, Valeria Luiselli , and others, we'll seek to come into closer relationship with the invisible material processes that drive our world.

Enroll HERE.

The Attention Labs are an experiential, participatory workshop curriculum dedicated to the joint exploration of radical human attention. Through group attention practices and guided discussions, we create and test tools to build sanctuaries of attention — as well as networks of solidarity to sustain them.

Register for our DUMBO Lab HERE.

In a culture dominated by visual stimuli, the cultivation of listening skills often takes a backseat — yet through listening we can engage with and understand our environments in unique and powerful ways. By practicing active listening, we can connect with our surroundings more holistically. This act of listening can expand our perception, inform our spatial, ecological, and political awareness, and provide space to reflect on the passage of time.

In this 3-week course, we will use our ears to unfold a series of intentional, multi-sensory listening exercises that culminate in the creation of a sound walk. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Tarek Atoui, Hildegard Westerkamp, Francisco López, and Christina Kubisch, we will expand auditory awareness through durational exercises that incorporate drawing, movement, sounding, and learning how to direct our listening attention. You’ll also learn how to use basic recording tools and audio tour software.

The course will culminate in a public listening event, where participants can engage with audio tours in person through headphones via the guided audio tour software Echoes.

Led by composer, sound technologist, archivist, and researcher Anastasia Clarke.

Led by acclaimed conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll, this seminar will draw on design, visual art, architecture, public policy, and even music to see trash anew. With readings from Edouard Glissant, Hannah Arendt, Valeria Luiselli , and others, we'll seek to come into closer relationship with the invisible material processes that drive our world.

Enroll HERE.

The Attention Labs are an experiential, participatory workshop curriculum dedicated to the joint exploration of radical human attention. Through group attention practices and guided discussions, we create and test tools to build sanctuaries of attention — as well as networks of solidarity to sustain them.

Register for our DUMBO Lab HERE.

Led by acclaimed conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll, this seminar will draw on design, visual art, architecture, public policy, and even music to see trash anew. With readings from Edouard Glissant, Hannah Arendt, Valeria Luiselli , and others, we'll seek to come into closer relationship with the invisible material processes that drive our world.

Enroll HERE.

The Emergency Was Curiosity, by Christie George, is a project inspired by Jenny Odell's book How To Do Nothing. Christie initiated the work during the pandemic summer of 2020. Sheltering in her home at the Russian River, she found herself returning again and again to Odell's remarkable book. Inspired by its ideas about the interconnectedness of species and ways to cultivate individual creative attention, Christie started making hand-drawn illustrations, watercolors and collages as a response and a means to develop her own practice of attention. What began for her as a "book report" evolved into a pandemic scrapbook and archive of her attention.

As we approach the 5-year anniversary of the pandemic, Christie's project helps us reimagine the idea of individual and collective memorialization. What do we want to remember from that time? What do we want to leave behind? How might we memorialize an event that was shared by everyone but experienced so differently? Using the simple format of the one-page zine, we will make our own archives of attention and powerfully embody the ethos of bearing witness.

The Emergency Was Curiosity, by Christie George, is a project inspired by Jenny Odell's book How To Do Nothing. Christie initiated the work during the pandemic summer of 2020. Sheltering in her home at the Russian River, she found herself returning again and again to Odell's remarkable book. Inspired by its ideas about the interconnectedness of species and ways to cultivate individual creative attention, Christie started making hand-drawn illustrations, watercolors and collages as a response and a means to develop her own practice of attention. What began for her as a "book report" evolved into a pandemic scrapbook and archive of her attention.

As we approach the 5-year anniversary of the pandemic, Christie's project helps us reimagine the idea of individual and collective memorialization. What do we want to remember from that time? What do we want to leave behind? How might we memorialize an event that was shared by everyone but experienced so differently? Using the simple format of the one-page zine, we will make our own archives of attention and powerfully embody the ethos of bearing witness.

By slowing down the now-automated capture of the medium, we will seek to rediscover the diverse attentional experiences that go into making an impression of ourselves and our surroundings.

All the while, we will think about the relation of these technical processes to meaning-making. Photographs attempt to trap a moment in the amber of silver halide crystals. Our society's preoccupation with photos is analogous to our obsession with the concept of time. What do we see when we look back? 

Enroll HERE.

The Attention Labs are an experiential, participatory workshop curriculum dedicated to the joint exploration of radical human attention. Through group attention practices and guided discussions, we create and test tools to build sanctuaries of attention — as well as networks of solidarity to sustain them.

Register for our DUMBO Lab HERE.

By slowing down the now-automated capture of the medium, we will seek to rediscover the diverse attentional experiences that go into making an impression of ourselves and our surroundings.

All the while, we will think about the relation of these technical processes to meaning-making. Photographs attempt to trap a moment in the amber of silver halide crystals. Our society's preoccupation with photos is analogous to our obsession with the concept of time. What do we see when we look back? 

Enroll HERE.

The Attention Labs are an experiential, participatory workshop curriculum dedicated to the joint exploration of radical human attention. Through group attention practices and guided discussions, we create and test tools to build sanctuaries of attention — as well as networks of solidarity to sustain them.

Register for our DUMBO Lab HERE.

By slowing down the now-automated capture of the medium, we will seek to rediscover the diverse attentional experiences that go into making an impression of ourselves and our surroundings.

All the while, we will think about the relation of these technical processes to meaning-making. Photographs attempt to trap a moment in the amber of silver halide crystals. Our society's preoccupation with photos is analogous to our obsession with the concept of time. What do we see when we look back? 

Enroll HERE.