PRESS RELEASE
A LOSS OF ATTENTION – Main Gallery, Memphis College of Art, 14/10/11 – 04/11/11
Don’t be bored, don’t be lazy, don’t be trivial and don’t be proud. The slightest loss of attention leads to death. - Frank O’Hara 1964
I observed others on computers and Blackberries: in their offices, their homes, at cafes - the vast majority of people held their breath, or breathed very shallowly, especially when responding to email. - Linda Stone on “email apnea” 2008
In 1964 Frank O’Hara knowingly declared that, in relation to the production of new cultural material “the slightest loss of attention leads to death.” This stirring, over-powering rule was meant to refer to a need for focus in the production and criticism of art. As in the forever present use of the word ‘cool’ a blanketing language of acceptability has comfortably enveloped all cultural production. Focused criticism is unnecessary in a world in which the Google search provides the paranoiac user with a flat plane of imagery, rendering any poetics an absurd sales tactic. The power of Lulz - the life-force of the message-board troll - carries as much cultural and political value as traditional legitimating tropes such as market value, craftsmanship and vision.
This loss of rigour will result in some kind of premature death – the droll end foreseen by O’Hara – and its nascent symptoms are present today. Linda Stone’s recent research has investigated the sort of breath-holding associated with “email apnea” and its debilitating effects:
The body becomes acidic, the kidneys begin to re-absorb sodium, and as the oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitric oxide (NO) balance is undermined, our biochemistry is thrown off.
A Loss of Attention is the name of an exhibition at Memphis College of Art which will bring together visual art and poetry from across the United States of America. This mercenary army will attempt to disrupt, maybe destroy and maybe put in slight disarray some of your favourite preconceptions about our technologically networked culture and lifestyle. Cats, dogs on skateboards, fuck you anteaters, casual misogyny, disingenuous homophobia, eclectic pornography, blog-minded opinion, schadenfreude, desperate emotional deceit, commercial fetishism, babies eating lemons, hyperaccelerated transference of money, inventive email scams, global thermonuclear war.
Curated by Nick Hill, Kirsten Johnson, and Avril Thurman, A Loss of Attention presents Cynthia Arrieu-King, Keith Benjamin, Sarah Blyth-Stephens, M.Callen, CS13, Larry Franklin, Micah Freeman, Whit Griffin,Terence Hammonds, Matt Hart, TARa heilman, STEVE KEMPLE, MEREDITH JONES, TONY LUNESMAN, Chase Markovich, CLAY MATTHEWS, Claire Metzger, The Phraseology Project, Zach Rawe, Zachary Schomburg.
The show will open on the 14th October at The Main Gallery of Memphis College of Art - 1930 Poplar Avenue Memphis, Tennessee 38104, United States (800) 727-1088 - and will run until the 4th November.
The opening on Friday October 14th will begin at 5 o’clock and go on until 7 o’clock. There will be a poetry reading from 6 o’clock until 7 o’clock. There might be a party afterwards, details of which will follow.
This is the voice of The Creative Services of Hugo de Verteuil & Ian Rothwell. The Creative Services of Hugo de Verteuil and Ian Rothwell are a arts and culture production and consultation company of two based in Edinburgh, Scotland. We are functioning as the absentee promotions group for this exhibition. Please see www.cshdvir.tumblr.com or friend TheCreative Cerviceezs on Facebook for more information about our work.
For more information about the exhibition and the artists please visit www.alossofattention.tumblr.com
Too hip for the squares and too square for the hips
![LINDA STONE
Linda Stone (born 1955) is a writer and consultant who coined the phrase “continuous partial attention” in 1998.[1] Stone also coined “email apnea” in 2008 which means “a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email.”[2]
Stone was at Apple Computer from 1986 to 1993, working on multimedia hardware, software and publishing. In her last year at Apple, Stone worked for CEO John Sculley on special projects. In 1993, Stone joined Microsoft Research under Nathan Myhrvold and Rick Rashid. She co-founded and directed the Virtual Worlds Group/Social Computing Group, researching online social life and virtual communities. During this time, she also taught as adjunct faculty in New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. In 2000, she became a Microsoft vice president, working on industry relationships and improving Microsoft’s corporate culture. She left Microsoft in 2002.
Stone served a six year term on the National Board of the World Wildlife Fund and is currently on the WWF National Council. She is an adviser for the Internet and American Life Project, the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force for the Center for Worklife Policy, and is on the Advisory Board of the RIT Lab for social computing.
Stone has been written about in many major publications, including Wired, the New York Times, and Forbes.
STONE HAS COINED THE PHRASE CONSTANT PARTIAL ATTENTION,A SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PHENOMENA WHOSE EFFECTS ARE EXPLORED WITHIN “A LOSS OF ATTENTION.”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls5jvrDRWM1r2duq7o1_250.jpg)
LINDA STONE
Linda Stone (born 1955) is a writer and consultant who coined the phrase “continuous partial attention” in 1998.[1] Stone also coined “email apnea” in 2008 which means “a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email.”[2]
Stone was at Apple Computer from 1986 to 1993, working on multimedia hardware, software and publishing. In her last year at Apple, Stone worked for CEO John Sculley on special projects. In 1993, Stone joined Microsoft Research under Nathan Myhrvold and Rick Rashid. She co-founded and directed the Virtual Worlds Group/Social Computing Group, researching online social life and virtual communities. During this time, she also taught as adjunct faculty in New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. In 2000, she became a Microsoft vice president, working on industry relationships and improving Microsoft’s corporate culture. She left Microsoft in 2002.
Stone served a six year term on the National Board of the World Wildlife Fund and is currently on the WWF National Council. She is an adviser for the Internet and American Life Project, the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force for the Center for Worklife Policy, and is on the Advisory Board of the RIT Lab for social computing.
Stone has been written about in many major publications, including Wired, the New York Times, and Forbes.
STONE HAS COINED THE PHRASE CONSTANT PARTIAL ATTENTION,A SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PHENOMENA WHOSE EFFECTS ARE EXPLORED WITHIN “A LOSS OF ATTENTION.”
I am gold!
THIS IS THE PRESS RELEASE FOR A LOSS OF ATTENTION. THANKX
A LOSS OF ATTENTION
Don’t be bored, don’t be lazy, don’t be trivial and don’t be proud. The slightest loss of attention leads to death.
Frank O’Hara 1964
I observed others on computers and Blackberries: in their offices, their homes, at cafes - the vast majority of people held their breath, or breathed very shallowly, especially when responding to email.
Linda Stone on “email apnea” 2008
In 1964 Frank O’Hara knowingly declared that, in relation to the production of new cultural material “the slightest loss of attention leads to death.” This stirring, over-powering rule was meant to refer to a need for focus in the production and criticism of art. As in the forever present use of the word ‘cool’ a blanketing language of acceptability has comfortably enveloped all cultural production. Focused criticism is unnecessary in a world in which the Google search provides the paranoiac user with a flat plane of imagery, rendering any poetics an absurd sales tactic. The power of Lulz - the life-force of the message-board troll - carries as much cultural and political value as traditional legitimating tropes such as market value, craftsmanship and vision.
This loss of rigour will result in some kind of premature death – the droll end foreseen by O’Hara – and its nascent symptoms are present today. Linda Stone’s recent research has investigated the sort of breath-holding associated with “email apnea” and its debilitating effects:
The body becomes acidic, the kidneys begin to re-absorb sodium, and as the oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitric oxide (NO) balance is undermined, our biochemistry is thrown off.
A Loss of Attention is the name of an exhibition at Memphis College of Art which will bring together visual art and poetry from across the United States of America. This mercenary army will attempt to disrupt, maybe destroy and maybe put in slight disarray some of your favourite preconceptions about our technologically networked culture and lifestyle. Cats, dogs on skateboards, fuck you anteaters, casual misogyny, disingenuous homophobia, eclectic pornography, blog-minded opinion, schadenfreude, desperate emotional deceit, commercial fetishism, babies eating lemons, hyperaccelerated transference of money, inventive email scams, global thermonuclear war.
Organized by Evan Commander and curated by Nick Hill, Kirsten Johnson, and Avril Thurman, A Loss of Attention presents Cynthia Arrieu-King, Keith Benjamin, Sarah Blyth-Stephens, M.Callen, CS13, Larry Franklin, Micah Freeman, Whit Griffin,Terence Hammonds, Matt Hart, TARa heilman, STEVE KEMPLE, MEREDITH JONES, TONY LUNESMAN, Chase Markovich, CLAY MATTHEWS, Claire Metzger, The Phraseology Project, Zach Rawe, Zachary Schomburg.
The show will open on the 14th October at … and will run until …
BTW this is the voice of The Creative Services of Hugo de Verteuil & Ian Rothwell. The Creative Services are a company of two based in Edinburgh, Scotland and are in charge of public relations for this exhibition.
You’re very welcome,
The Creative Services of Hugo de Verteuil & Ian Rothwell
[video]
[video]
My Dearest one,
Hi, My name is Lydia Justin Yak, 23years old originated from Sudan. I decide to contact you after my prayers, I really want to have a good relationship with you. My father Dr. Justin Yak was the former Minister for SPLA Affairs and Special Adviser to President Salva Kiir of South Sudan for Decentralization. My father Dr.Justin Yak and my mother including other top Military officers and top govaernment officials had been on board when the plane crashed on Friday May 02, 2008.
You can read more about the crash through the below site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ africa/7380412.stm
After the burial of my father, my uncle conspired and sold my father’s properties to a Chinease Expatriate and live nothing for me. On a faithful morning, I opened my father’s briefcase and found out the documents which he have deposited huge amount of money in one bank in Burkina Faso with my name as the next of kin. I traveled to Burkina Faso to withdraw the money so that I can start a better life and take care of myself. On my arrival, the Branch manager of the Bank whom I met in person told me that my father’s instruction to the bank was the money be release to me only when I am married or present a trustee who will help me and invest the money overseas.
I have chosen to contact you after my prayers and I believe that you will not betray my trust. But rather take me as your own sister. Though you may wonder why I am so soon revealing myself to you without knowing you, well, I will say that my mind convinced me that you are the true person to help me. More so, I will like to disclose much to you if you can help me to relocate to your country because my uncle have threaten to assassinate me. The amount is $5.6 Million and I have confirmed from the bank in Burkina Faso. You will also help me to place the money in a more profitable business venture in your Country.
However, you will help by recommending a nice University in your country so that I can complete my studies. It is my intention to compensate you with 30% of the total money for your services and the balance shall be my capital in your establishment. As soon as I receive your interest in helping me, I will put things into action immediately. In the light of the above, I shall appreciate an urgent message indicating your ability and willingness to handle this transaction sincerely. Please do keep this only to your self. I beg you not to disclose it till i come over because I am affraid of my wicked uncle who has threatened to kill me.
Sincerely yours,
Miss 
[video]
Frank O’Hara, the son of Russell Joseph O’Hara and Katherine Broderick, was born on March 27, 1926, at Maryland General Hospital, Baltimore and grew up in Grafton, Massachusetts. He attended St. John’s High School in Worcester. O’Hara believed he was born in June but was in fact born in March, his parents having disguised his true date of birth because he was conceived out of wedlock.[1] He studied piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston from 1941 to 1944 and served in the South Pacific and Japan as a sonarman on the destroyer USS Nicholas during World War II.
With the funding made available to veterans he attended Harvard University, where artist and writer Edward Gorey was his roommate. Although O’Hara majored in music and did some composing, his attendance was irregular and his interests disparate. He regularly attended classes in philosophy and theology, while writing impulsively in his spare time. O’Hara was heavily influenced by visual art and by contemporary music, which was his first love (he remained a fine piano player all his life and would often shock new partners by suddenly playing swathes of Rachmaninoff when visiting them). His favorite poets were Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Boris Pasternak, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. While at Harvard, O’Hara met John Ashbery and began publishing poems in the Harvard Advocate. Despite his love of music, O’Hara changed his major and graduated from Harvard in 1950 with a degree in English.
He then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While at Michigan, he won a Hopwood Award and received his M.A. in English literature 1951. That autumn O’Hara moved into an apartment in New York City with Joe LeSueur, who would be his roommate and sometime lover for the next 11 years.[2] It was in New York that he began teaching at The New School.
Known throughout his life for his extreme sociability, passion, and warmth, O’Hara had hundreds of friends and lovers throughout his life, many from the New York art and poetry worlds. Soon after arriving in New York, he was employed at the front desk of the Museum of Modern Art and began to write seriously.
O’Hara was active in the art world, working as a reviewer for Artnews, and in 1960 was Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art. He was also friends with the artists Willem de Kooning, Norman Bluhm, Larry Rivers and Joan Mitchell.
In the early morning hours of July 24, 1966, O’Hara was struck by a dune buggy on the Fire Island beach.[3][4][5] He died the next day of a ruptured liver. O’Hara was buried in Green River Cemetery on Long Island. The painter Larry Rivers, a longtime friend of O’Hara’s, delivered the eulogy.
[edit] Poetry
