Twelve Theses on Attention

The Friends of Attention (2022)
Edited by D. Graham Burnett and Stevie Knauss

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A meditation on the ethics and politics of attention
“True attention takes the unlivable, and makes it livable.” So say the Friends of Attention in their visionary and epigrammatic analysis of attentional freedom in our time. Directly confronting the pathologies of our attention economy, this slim text, written by an underground collective of activist-critics, utopian dreamers, and peaceful insurgents, stakes out the terrain of a new politics—one that centers on the truly human use of our capacity to attend.

It is widely recognized that unprecedented technologies, operating at unprecedented scales and with near-total ubiquity, continuously “frack” our faculties of eye and mind, extracting revenue by capturing our most precious and intimate resource: our attention. What can be done? Informed by the radical traditions of figures as diverse as Simone Weil and adrienne maree brown, and drawing on contemporary philosophy of mind no less than the eccentricities of slacker-surrealists, Twelve Theses on Attention offers a surprising and lyrical answer.

The book is richly illustrated with stills from a set of related films by a diverse group of young filmmakers. You can find PDFs (in English and multiple translations) of the Twelve Theses on the Friends of Attention website.

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The Friends of Attention is a coalition of artists, scholars, and activists concerned with attentional forms (and practices) that are resistant to commodification. Founded in 2018 at the São Paulo Biennial, the collective makes films and texts, coordinates study groups, and convenes an annual series of workshops on “The Politics of Attention.” The Friends have written a “Handbook for the Attention Liberation Movements” and a “Manifesto for the Freedom of Attention.” These and other materials are available at www.friendsofattention.net.

For bulk orders of the Twelve Theses, please reach out to <<friendsofattention@gmail.com>>

Reviews:

“'If we want to own our attention again—and use it at full blast to bring the world forth, keep us present, lead us into intimacy and understanding, and feed our souls—we have to declare war with the shallow distractions we have welcomed into our lives. This austere, deceptively gentle book uses its quiet as a camouflage—but it is a call to arms.” --Jeannette Cooperman, The Common Reader

“Twelve Theses on Attention is fluid, designed to accommodate future theory, and brings together concepts . . . of empathy, connectedness, and responsibility.”—Ocula

“This small, powerful, and beautiful book offers a mesmerizing invitation both to think about and to practice full attention. Its originality lies in enabling critical as well as meditative engagement, thus both explicating and manifesting the value of full attention. Engaging with this volume has been a deeply enriching and energizing experience.”—Dorothea Debus, Professor of Philosophy of Mind and Language, University of Konstanz, author of Shaping Our Mental Lives

“The ‘attention economy,’ as the marketing of our online gaze has come to be called, might just be capitalism’s most toxic form to date. Fortunately, Twelve Theses on Attention has come along to serve as a much-needed antidote. Pithy and elegiac in word and image, these theses compel us to pause and reclaim unmediated, un-commodified, human-to-human exchange as our natural and nourishing right.”—Paul Greenberg, author of Goodbye Phone, Hello World

“At a time when our freedoms are under various forms of threat, this gem of a book suggests attention is key to the goodness of life in the presence of others. Attention is an act of friendship, of resistance, of freedom—this and nothing less is what this evocatively illustrated, gentle manifesto proposes.”—Stefanie Hessler, Director of the Kunsthall Trondheim, Curator of the 2021 Momenta Biennale Sensing Nature

“In 1845, Marx wrote eleven Theses on Feuerbach that turned philosophy upside down, paving the way for a new form of political materialism. In 2022, never to be outnumbered, the Friends of Attention go one step further, publishing Twelve Theses on Attention, which promise to seed a new form of material spiritualism. The Marxian critique of a philosophical critique of religion has mutated into an empowering appreciation of the ever-revolutionary potential of immediate presence. Grumpy old Feuerbach has morphed into a soft-spoken fire, generous in heat and light, nourished by a gentle stream of mindfulness. Philosophers are welcome to interpret and transform the world; the Friends of Attention are needed to help us enliven and enjoy it!”—Yves Citton, Professor of Literature and Media, University of Paris, author of The Ecology of Attention”