The arts of attention and Oslo Architecture Triennale

Abstract

This paper starts from a two-fold observation: firstly, that attention rests at the core of our environmental challenges; and secondly, that by becoming (more) attentive to the modified, transformed, and controlled urban environments in which we dwell, we may be better equipped to attend to these challenges. The paper therefore develops and introduces “an urban attention ecology” that seeks to expand our ability to attend to urban form in ways that open possibilities to critically address and creatively negotiate the ways in which cities are built and inhabited. The potentials and challenges of the urban attention ecology are thought through in a practice-based account of a broad range of critical spatial practices centring around the theme of degrowth. These practices took the form of performances, installations, and other artistic projects that the author gathered, developed and presented as curator of the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019. Cover photo: The Factory of the Future at the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture. OAT / Istvan Virag.

Keywords

• attention
• architecture
• critical spatial practice
• degrowth
• ecology
• urban