The beginning of this journey was a New York Times article on a Harvard class assignment. I won’t link the article here since it’s behind a paywall, but you can find it easily. In the Harvard class, the professor wanted the students to “detach” from the internet, and spend a long chunk of 3 hours just looking at and taking notes on a painting in a museum. The rules for the assignment seemed specific to the class (it sounded like an aesthetics or art class, where the focus would be on the object itself). These included rules for looking at the surface and colors and lines, and rejecting all other presuppositions. The compelling idea of this story is that we take such a large chuck of time (by current standards) and devote it to examining one thing. If I remember correctly, the New York TImes reporter compared this 3 hours with our current average attention span, something like 18 seconds (!).
Since I am not an art student, I decided to change the rules. I did the following myself:
- Find a work of art on the internet. Display it on a screen, I set mine as the desktop background on a large monitor in front of me.
- Breaks were OK, and realistically necessary. I did take a 15 minute break about 2 hours in, but otherwise it was fairly easy to make the 3 hours without interruption
- Don’t check phone or tablet at all
- Don’t check email
- Music was OK, in fact I took many notes on music and my ideas on it
- No limitations on thought. Let your mind wander in stream of conciousness style
- Taking notes is OK. In fact, the entire 3 hours was spent taking notes, except for the time looking at the painting
My notes were very long by the end, and according to Medium site, would be a 17 minute read. I will link it [here] (https://medium.com/@shimtestbill/3-hours-with-a-jackson-pollock-painting-3ab08d0a9808)
Since I mentioned the notes, I need to make this disclaimer: I don’t think you should waste time in reading them :)
While the note taking was a hugely fun and enlightening experience, I think it was the doing of the notes that was key, not the product. But feel free to read if you are so inclined :)
While not completely in a form of stillness (since there was a lot of note taking), this exercise was much more still than the experience of many people now, especially those of us who are online. More than the stillness of body, it was the stillness of mind that was key.
My takeaways from this exercise:
- We can easily focus on something for large chucks of time. I believe many of us don’t now, not because we can’t, but because the attraction of always being in a critical online state attracts us more. Unfortunately, a lot of online interaction combines chemical stimulation of our brain coupled with depression inducing interactions with others. Social media algorithms foster this, since it leads to the most interaction, and hence the most clicks and profit.
- Artwork is amazingly deep. I spent 3 hours with an abstract Pollock painting, but I did not even scratch the surface of what is possible to glean from it, and my interaction with it. If we look at all of the art that has ever been created, we are so rich in possibilities to engage with it deeply.
- I don’t consider it critical to disengage with technology in general. My 3 hours was on a computer screen with a software note application. I DO think it is critical to disengage with social media. The algorithms are the thing that is manipulating our attention, not technology in general.
- Any work of art can be the focus, including dynamic art like movies are music. The key is to really focus and spend time with that object, and dive into it deeply. If taking notes helps (like in my case), do that; otherwise do what you need to keep focus.
- Beyond a work of art, I think it’s possible to do this with something like a natural place as well. If you can be some place where you will not be interrupted and bothered, even by people who are not malicious, then it will be acceptable. But not a place where someone will suddenly start up a conversation with you since they are bored.
- Take the idea further. I am looking at engaging with written works of art in the same way, and even manipulate those works in my notes at the same time. As long as I focus without interruption, this has a huge value. I will write about this idea in the future.
- Take note of how you feel after the experiment is done. I was so genuinely happy after it was done, I knew this idea was onto something important for me. I am now taking steps to reduce social media in my daily life, so that I get longer periods of time like this on a daily basis. More on that to come as well.
In summary, if you are willing and able to engage with a piece of art for a long period of time, I believe it is of immense value for everyone to try this out.
Feel free to reach out to the Mindset Dojo to engage with this and similar ideas!
