Internet companies regularly talk of the ‘attention economy’, a concept that frames human attention as a scarce commodity for which they are always competing. In this semester-long assignment, you are to reclaim a small portion of your weekly attention and practice what Anna Tsing calls the ‘arts of noticing’ by regularly observing another life form or ecosystem.
Choose either a species that lives in New York (a plant, animal, insect, fungi etc.), preferably one that you don’t know much about, or an ecosystem such as a stretch of canal or an empty lot. You must choose a species/ecosystem that you can observe from time to time (at least weekly). For this assignment you are to visit your chosen entity, and make observations for a period of at least 20 minutes, at least once per week. When you do this, you are to put your phone in aeroplane mode or leave it at home.
You are to record of what you notice – this might be in a notebook, on a blog, in a shared document or using an app such as iNaturalist. You also must document your species or place (photo, video, sketching, audio recording), take note of the location of each observation in some way and make some brief notes as to what you notice about it and about yourself. Try to imagine the world from the perspective and temporality of your chosen species or ecosystem. Do some research of it history and how it has come to be here in the city with you. What can you learn from its dynamics? What are the opportunities and challenges it faces?
Towards the end of the semester, you will be allocated a time during class to show your documentation and discuss your observations (There should documentation from at least 10 observations). How did this activity effect ‘the granularity of your perception’? [1] You are to share recommendations and strategies for observing and noticing this species or site with the class.
Use the first week of class to visit some potential ecosystems, sites or species (if you are stumped take a look at the events page), and we will check in on your focus for this project in class in Week 2. Please come prepared to share your plan for this project. Consider how using this prompt could intersect with your interests and the goals you have for your work. Stay open to how this could be a framework to lead your thinking somewhere new.
[1] Jenny Odell discusses the sensitivity of perception in her essay ‘How to do nothing’. Online: https://medium.com/@the_jennitaur/how-to-do-nothing-57e100f59bbb