Fracking Focus: Human Attention in the Age of Algorithmic Intelligence

By reducing attention to a measurable and marketable product, today’s digital interfaces strip away important aspects of human being – things like contemplation, creativity, care. And concern is widespread: in January, the New York Times predicted that 2025 will be “a turning point in the war for attention.”

How do we reclaim agency in an age where attention has become the ultimate commodity, and human experience the new frontier of extraction?

Drawing on historic parallels, a lineage of artists and writers, and contemporary experiments in artificial intelligence,  D. Graham Burnett calls for new forms of resistance and offers a vision of “attention activism” that brings together collective movements and individual practices that resist exploitation and restore our individual and shared flourishing.

This programme session is supported by Stiftung Mercator. / Dieser Programmpunkt wird durch die Stiftung Mercator unterstützt.