OPEN CALL | Attention//Distraction

We live in a moment of unprecedented competition for attention in a world shaped by ever-growing crises and conflicts. Wars and colonization unfold across multiple regions. Political scandals emerge only to be quickly forgotten. Technological power concentrates in the hands of corporations and technocratic institutions. Information travels at extraordinary speed, producing cycles of spectacle, outrage, and irrelevance. And with the rise of artificial intelligence and the attention economy, our attention has been further commodified and exploited through information that is exaggerated, fabricated, or manufactured. We are physically present in the world, yet simultaneously networked to multiple elsewheres. Our perception is shaped not only by what we choose to look at, but also by the technological infrastructures, media platforms, and ideological powers that direct our gaze. Before we pay attention to something, we need to examine: what gravitational forces are redirecting our attention, and from what? When our vision turns toward a certain orientation, what falls outside the frame? If attention can be captured, redirected, fragmented, or resisted, then distraction can also emerge both as a condition and a strategy.

Artists have long intervened in these dynamics by reshaping how we look, notice, and interpret the world. In a moment defined by algorithmic feeds, viral circulation, and collapsing boundaries between physical and mediated space, the politics of attention has become increasingly visible.

This open call invites artists and writers to explore the shifting conditions of attention today, and art as intervention to redirect attention to things that we often neglect.

Requirements

Area of interests:

· Network culture and the media environments that occupy our attention
· Critique on contemporary spectatorship
· Artistic interventions that disrupt and redirect attention
· New modes of seeing and noticing

All mediums are welcome, including but not limited to:

· (New) media art
· Animation
· Narrative fiction
· Essay
· Photography and film
· Interactive web pieces
· Sound art
· Game design / virtual environments / world-building
· Mixed / hybrid forms

Artists, writers, designers, technologists, and researchers from all backgrounds are welcome to apply.

Selected work will be invited to participate in:

· An online publication [See our latest publication↗]
· An in-person exhibition in New York٭
· In-person Artist talks and panel discussions٭

٭ Venue to be announced alongside the selection results.

Application Instructions

Apply at: https://www.uaad.art/attention
For inquiries: hello@uaad.art