Attention After Technology

The exhibition Attention After Technology is a result of a two-year collaboration between Kunsthall Trondheim, Art Hub Copenhagen, Tropical Papers, State of Concept Athens, and Swiss Institute New York, with The Friends of Attention, D. Graham Burnett (Princeton University), Justin Smith-Ruiu (Université de Paris) as associated partners. Attention After Technology explores how algorithms affect us and how we could imagine them otherwise, through newly commissioned works by seven international artists.

The participating artists are biarritzzz (Brazil), Vivian Caccuri (Brazil), Shu Lea Cheang (USA/Taiwan), Kyriaki Goni (Greece), CUSS Group (South Africa), Femke Herregraven (Netherlands) and Berenice Olmedo (Mexico).

The artists consider how our attention is commodified and monetized in the “attention economy,” where our eyeballs, affect, and time have become some of the most sought-after goods. They examine algorithms with regard to social justice and concerns of equity and inclusion, probing their emancipatory potential as much as how they reinforce existing bias.

The exhibition title, Attention After Technology, is a reference to the celebrated book Race After Technology (2019) by Ruha Benjamin, a Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University in the United States. In her publication, Benjamin decodes the discriminatory designs embedded in algorithms that reinforce and deepen racial, socioeconomic, and other systemic hierarchies.

In the lead-up to the exhibition, the artists participated in regular online meetings to workshop their artworks with the exhibition curators, the associated partner collective The Friends of Attention (an informal network of creative collaborators), and each other, as well as with advisors whom the artists chose to support their research. The artists’ advisors come from diverse disciplines including computer science and artificial intelligence, visual arts, and queer and trans technology studies. This collaborative practice was crucial to the process, since attention is not only a private practice, but also a collective one.

While distraction and fragmentation may seem like antonyms of attention, the exhibition resists such simple dichotomies. Far from luddites opposing technology, the exhibiting artists both use and hack, celebrate and critique, discard and invent new tools. The exhibition explores attention as a practice, as an embodied technology, and as an evolving aesthetic, social, and political sphere. In bringing attention into debates around algorithmic justice, the works in Attention After Technology pull back the curtain on the neutrality of technology, while using it to draft new ways of relating.

This exhibition is the first of three visual expressions of the overall ambitious project, spanning over two years (2022–2024). The exhibition was presented first at Kunsthall Trondheim (13 October 2023–28 January 2024), and travels after to State of Concept Athens (24 February 2024–18 May 2024). Furthermore, online versions of the works can be experiended at Tropical Papers’ web platform, from 6 December 2023. The associated symposium “The Digital Divide – Attention, Algorithms and Social Justice”, coordinated by Art Hub Copenhagen in partnership with IDA – the Danish Society of Engineers and TOASTER, took place on 4 May 2023 as well as the hosting of two artist residencies, with biarritzzz and CUSS Group. The overall project also includes curatorial and strategic contributions by Swiss Institute New York, USA.

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biarritzzz would like to give a special thank you to Anti Ribeiro, who produced the work's sound piece, Edson Barrus Atikum, Ariana Nuala, her family, friends, and the whole Attention After Technology team.

Vivian Caccuri would like to thank Pedro Victor Brandão (research), Dado Sutter (Eigenface software engineer), Gabriel Duarte (coding assistant) and André Perrotta (sound synthesis and AI collaborator engineer).

Shu Lea Cheang would like to give a special thank you to the Attention After Technology production team, Roland Lauth, Florent Testa, Aaron Schütte, Yifat Gavish Welt & Jana Lobel (IDM, Israel) and Whit Pow as AI research artist advisor.

Kyriaki Goni would like to thank Kate Crawford, Thanos Danilof and Francis Hunger.

CUSS Group would like to thank Lex Trickett who they collaborated closely with on the project and Delinda Collier (Dean of Graduate Studies, Professor of Art History School of the Art Institute of Chicago) who was a sounding board for the artist collective.

Femke Herregraven would like to thank Benny Nilsen, Gabor Szalatnyai and Flavia Dzodan.

Berenice Olmedo would like to thank her engineer Oliver Peters, Dr. Orlando Daniel Quintanar Haro and Dr. Gerardo Muñoz Gutiérrez.

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Project Coordinator: Kunsthall Trondheim
The project is led by: Kunsthall Trondheim and Swiss Institute New York
Project Partners: Art Hub Copenhagen, Tropical Papers and State of Concept Athens
Associated Partners: The Friends of Attention, D. Graham Burnett (Princeton University), Justin Smith-Ruiu (Université de Paris), and the Swiss Institute New York
Co-funded by the European Union

Artist advisors: Pedro Victor Brandão, Delinda Collier, Kate Crawford, Flavia Dzodan, Whit Pow, Joana Souza
Project ambassador Trondheim: Gulabuddin Sukhanwar

Curatorial Team

Kunsthall Trondheim:
Katrine Elise Agpalza Pedersen, Curator and Project Lead Attention After Technology (with Stefanie Hessler, Swiss Institute New York)
Liz Dom, Project Manager Attention After Technology
Kaja Grefslie Waagen, Producer and Communications Manager

Art Hub Copenhagen:
Lars Bang Larsen, Head of Art & Research
Rose Tytgat, Project Coordinator
Susanne Hviid, Managing Director
Jacob Fabricius, Artistic Director
Fafaya Mogensen, Project Manager
Marie Braad Larsen, Curator
Nikolaj Phillipsen, Event Coordinator
Stine Nørgaard Lykkebo, Communication Manager
Jan Mäkelä Wallin, Accounting

Tropical Papers:
María Inés Rodríguez
Mariana Vieira Marcondes
Andres Sandoval Alba
Yu Hsiaoh Hwei

State of Concept Athens:
iLiana Fokianaki, Founder and Director
Konstantina Melachrinou, Production Manager and Press Officer

Swiss Institute New York:
Stefanie Hessler, Director, curatorial concept and Project Project Lead Attention After Technology (with Katrine Elise Agpalza Pedersen, Kunsthall Trondheim)
Alison Coplan, Senior Curator and Head of Programs

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

The exhibition at Kunsthall Trondheim is additionally supported by SpareBank 1 SMN, Arts and Culture Norway, The Fritt Ord Foundation, Mondriaan Fund and IDM Dispenser.