Art & the History of Art 421 - Art and the Attention Economy

How do we pay attention to works of art and why do we think of attention as something that is paid? With what are we paying for it? This seminar incorporates a broad range of readings focusing on the topic of attention from fields such as philosophy, economics, history, neuroscience, and sociology and considers them alongside writing by art historians such as Claire Bishop and Jonathan Crary. Focusing on modern and contemporary art, how do artists
ask us to attend to their work with varied modes of attentiveness and do we behave accordingly? How do our attentional modes map onto a history of capitalism? How does the way we pay attention to an artwork relate to the impact of the Internet, social media, and AI on our cognition and awareness? What agency do you possess in spending that precious resource—your attention—on one thing or another? Is distraction a thing to be guarded against or embraced? What do we want from art when our sensory perception is already occupied by a multitude of cascading images to scroll through, click on, swipe on, “Like,” and delete?

Limited to 20 students. Spring 2026: Associate Professor Vicario.

How to handle overenrollment: Preference given to ARHA majors and after that, diversity of class years and majors

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: An emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations, visual analysis