Scattered Attention. How We View Art and Performance Today

Claire Bishop (b. 1971) is a British art historian, curator, and professor of art history at City University of New York, whose research interests include performance, installation, and "radical museology" as key mediums of contemporary art. Continuing her reflections in these areas, she addresses the viewer's experience, for which complex art, an incessant flow of information, and the multitasking of modern life are simultaneously competing for attention today. The perception of performances that do not assume a fixed viewpoint, taking place in various venues, lasting for days or only a couple of minutes, installations with an overwhelming amount of archival material, etc., is mixed with messages in messengers, notifications, photo and video shoots for social media, online and offline discussions of events. Instead of dissatisfaction about the "impossibility of concentrating," Bishop suggests accepting these conditions as a fact and reflecting on a new form - scattered - viewer attention.