Paying Attention

Senior Inquiry Seminar | Spring 2018 | Nathaniel Rivers

attentioncapstone.tumblr.com | nathaniel.rivers@slu.edu | ADJ 222 | TR 100-200
Before We Start Assignment for Next Time
Read: Hayles, N. Katherine. “Hyper and Deep Attention” 

In Your
Read: Clark, Andy. “Where are We?” (from Natural-Born Cyborgs) 

Own Review Website
Read: McCullough, Malcolm. “Attention” (from Ambient Commons) 

Time
Read: Ingold, Tim. “Education and Attention” (from The Life of Lines)

One: Introducing Attention Assignment for Next Time

Read*: Solnit, Rebecca. “The Mind at Three Miles an Hour” (from Wanderlust)
Read: James, William. “Attention” [402-405, 416-427, 447-458] (from The
Introducing the Work of the
Principles of Psychology)
Jan. 16 Course: Reading, Journaling,
Read: Mole, Christopher. “Highlights of a Difficult History” (from Attention is
Publishing
Cognitive Unison)
Exercise One: Drop Everything & Read

Read*: Spencer, Herbert. The Philosophy of Style (Selection)

Read: Simon, Herbert. “Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich
Introducing Attention as a
Jan. 18 World” [38-52]
Practice
Read: Terranova, Tiziana. “Attention, Economy and the Brain”
Read: Beller, Jonathan. “Paying Attention”

Two: Economics of Attention Assignment for Next Time

Jan. 23 Discuss Economics of Attention Exercise Two: Work

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 Read*: Lanham, Richard. ”Attention Economists" (from Economics of Attention)
Read: Hayles, N. Katherine. “Temporality and Cognitive Assemblages” (from
Unthought)
Website Workshop: GitHub and
Jan. 25 Read: Cronin, Michael. “Reading the Signs”
HTML
Read*: Wise, J. Macgregor. “Attention and Assemblage in the Clickable World”
Read: Wellmon, Chad. “79 Theses on Technology: On Attention”
Read: Jacobs, Alan. “79 Theses on Technology: Jacobs Responds to Wellmon”

Three: Economics of
Assignment for Next Time
Attention
Jan. 30 Website Workshop Due: Publication One

Read*: Horowitz, Alexandra. “Amateur Eyes” (from On Looking: Eleven Walks with
Expert Eyes)
Read*: Stewart, Kathleen. “Weak Theory in an Unfinished World”
Read: Mattern, Shannon. “Cloud and Field”
Feb. 1 Publication Sharing
Read: Odell, Jenny. “Notes of a Bioregional Interloper”
Read: Popova, Maria. “Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium”
Read: Benjamin, Walter. “The Flâneur” [read from as a flâneur] (from The Arcades
Project)

Four: Amateur Attention

Feb. 6 Discuss Amateur Attention Exercise Three: Amateur Walk

Read: Radiolab. “Stochasticity”

Read*: Benis, Matthew. “In Search of Distraction”
Read: Sarton, Mary. “Canticle 6”
Read: Dickinson, Emily. “One need not be a chamber to be haunted”
Feb. 8 Journal Sharing
Read: Stone, Linda. “Continuous Partial Attention”
Read: Goldsmith, Kenneth. “Let’s Get Lost” (from Wasting Time on the Internet)
Read*: Spacks, Patricia Meyer. “Reading, Writing, and Boredom” (from Boredom)
Read: Read, Jason, “Distracted by Attention”

Five: Fuck Attention Assignment for Next Time

Feb. 13 Discuss Fuck Attention Exercise Four: Get Distracted/Fucked Up

Read: Farman, Jason. “Fidget Spinners: How Buffer Icons Have Shaped Our Sense of
Time”
Read*: Hayles, N. Katherine. “Nonconscious Cognitions” (from Unthought)
Feb. 15 Journal Sharing Read: Hayles, N. Katherine. “Interplays between Nonconscious Cognition and
Consciousness” (from Unthought)
Read: Jennings, Carolyn Dicey. “I Attend, Therefore I Am”
Read: Eno, Brian. “Ambient Music”

Six: Fuck Attention Assignment for Next Time

Feb. 20 Publication Workshop Due: Publication Two

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 Read*: Solnit, Rebecca. “Citizens of the Streets” (from Wanderlust)
Read*: Pedwell, Carolyn. “Mediated Habits: Images, Networked Affect and Social
Change”
Read: Easterling, Keller. “Dispositon” (from Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure
Feb. 22
Space)
Read: Johnstone, Henry. “Rhetoric as a Wedge: A Reformulation”
Read: Dreher, Rod. “Thinking Clearly with Alan Jacobs”
Read: Mol, Annemarie. “Ontological Politics: A Word and Some Questions”

Seven: Political Attention

Feb. 27 Discuss Political Attention Exercise Five: Relations

Read*: Mattern, Shannon. “Infrastructural Tourism”

Read: Vanderbilt, Tom. “Our Eyes and Minds Betray us on the Road” (from Traffic)
Read: Powers, Martine. “Driving in Circles”
Mar. 1 Journal Sharing
Read: Manaugh, Geoff. “Crime is Just Another Way to Use the City” (from A
Burglar’s Guide to the City)
Read: Clay, Grady. “Beats” (from Close-Up: How to Read the American City)

Eight: Urban Attention Assignment for Next Time

Discuss Urban Attention
Mar. 6 Look at the work of Wendy Exercise Six: City Flâneur
MacNaughton

Five Paper Topics: come up with

five potential paper topics. A
paper topic is a single sentence
like “I think it’s interesting how
nobody on the subway looks at
Exercise Seven: Observe the Built Environment
Mar. 8 each other” or “Look at this
weird tech startup that made a
mindfulness app.” You’ll
probably want to bring an
example for each topic.. We’ll be
sharing these topics in class.

Nine: Spring Break Assignment for Next Time

Mar. 13 Spring Break

Read*: Milgrim, Stanley. “The Experience of Living in Cities”

Read: Horowitz, Alexandra. “The Fourth Dimension” (from On Looking)
Mar. 15 Spring Break Read: Radiolab. “Cities”
Read: Nilsen, BJ. “Recording the City: Berlin, London, Naples”
Read*: Burrington, Ingrid. “How to See Invisible Infrastructure”

Ten: Urban Attention Assignment for Next Time

Mar. 20 Publication Workshop Due: Publication Three

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 Read: Ingold, Tim. “Stories Against Classification” (from Being Alive) 

Read: Gallop, Jane. “The Ethics of Reading: Close Encounters” 

Mar. 22 Paper Topic Workshop Read: Sedgwick, Eve. “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading” 

Read: Burke, Kenneth. “Literature as Equipment for Living” 

Read: Collins, Billy. “Introduction to Poetry”

Eleven: Storied Attention Assignment for Next Time

Mar. 27 Discuss Storied Attention Exercise Eight: Pitch

Read: Bouie, Jamelle. “Michael Brown Wasn’t a Superhuman Demon”

Read: Baldwin, James. “The Negro in American Culture”
Read: Rankin, Claudia. Citizen (selection)
Read: Cadogan, Garnette. “Walking While Black”
Mar. 29
Read: Breland, Ali. “How White Engineers Built Racist Code and Why it’s Dangerous
for Black People”
Read: Cosmides, Leda Et al. “Perceptions of Race”
Read: MacLin, Otto H. Et al. “Race, Arousal, Attention, Exposure, and Delay”

Twelve: Racialized Attention Assignment for Next Time

Watch BBC’s "Altered States:
Apr. 3 Exercise Nine: Relations Revisited
Delmar Divide”

Read*: Pigg, Stacey. “Distracted by Digital Writing”

Read: Morozov, Evgeny. “The Death of the Cyberflâneur”
Read: Harris, Malcolm. “Behavior Modification” (from Kids These Days)
Read: Pettman, Dominic. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Tweets” (from Infinite
Distraction)
Apr. 5 Journal Sharing
Read: Alang, Navneet. “Close Reading: The Subtext of an Image Feed is Warmth”
Read: Kay, Alan and Adele Goldberg. “Personal Dynamic Media”
Read: Wu, Tim. “The Crisis of Attention Theft: Ads that Steal Your Time for Nothing
in Return”
Bonus Exercise: Analysis/Cyberflâneur

Thirteen: Networked Attention Assignment for Next Time

Apr. 10 Workshop Due: Publication Four

Read: Shanahan, Charif. “Ligament”

Read: Wilkerson, Abby. “Embodiment”
Read: Horowitz, Alexandra. “Seeing; Not Seeing” (from On Looking)
Read: Latour, Bruno. “How to Talk About the Body?”
Apr. 12 Discuss Networked Attention Read: Rose, Mike. “The Working Life of a Waitress”
Read: Hendren, Sara. “All Technology is Assistive”
Read: McCullough, Malcolm. “Embodiment” (from Ambient Commons)
Read: Solnit, Rebecca. “Walking After Midnight” (from Wanderlust)
Read: Hendren, Sara. “The White Cane as Technology”

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Fourteen: Embodied Attention Assignment for Next Time
Apr. 17 Pitch Meetings Exercise Ten: Khoreia-graphy

Read: Burke, Kenneth. “All Living Things Are Critics”

Read: Horowitz, Alexandra. “A Dog’s-Nose View” (from On Looking)
Read: Johnston, Devin. “Crows in Winter” (from Creaturely)
Read: Johnston, Devin. “Murmurations” (from Creaturely)
Apr. 19 Journal Sharing
Read: Johnston, Devin. “Creaturely” (from Creaturely)
Read: Jones, Kate E. “Sonic Ecology: The Undetectable Sounds of the City”
Read: Bruyninckx, Joeri. “Silent City: Listening to Birds in Urban Nature”
Read: Pezzullo, Phaedra. “Tourist Itineraries” (from Toxic Tourism)

Fifteen: Nonhuman Attention Assignment for Next Time

Apr. 24 Journal Sharing Exercise Eleven: Flora and Fauna

Read: Hayles, N. Katherine. “Intuition, Cognitive Assemblages, and Politico-

Historico Affects” (from Unthought)
Read: Liggins, Saundra. “The Urban Gothic Vision of Colson Whitehead’s The
Intuitionist”
Apr. 26 Discuss Nonhuman Attention
Read*: Whitehead, Colson. The Intuitionist
Read: Sousanis, Nick. “The Importance of Seeing Double and Then Some” (from
Unflattening)
Read: Berry, Lynda. “When Images Come to Us”

Sixteen: Intuitive Attention Assignment for Next Time

May 1

May 3 Workshop Due: Publication Five

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