The other day I received a post from Gwen Bell who had a link to a video of Linda Stone talking about Continuous Partial Attention. I am including it here because I think it well worth a listen.
I have been paying attention to attention for a while – say thirty years. It is a big part of how I approach performance work, movement, writing, my horses and dogs, my kids and myself. I am interested in the fluctuations of attention, and a big part of Breaking into Blossom is about that practice – how and when and why we attend.
Something wonderful that I discovered on Linda Stone’s web is a list of books that she likes. The one I am reading and loving right how is Exuberant Animal: The Power of Health, Play and Joyful Movement by Frank Forencich. He talks about how we have become a hyper-visual and hypo-tactile culture. And even beyond that, how we have narrowed our visual fields to exclude the peripheral.
This morning when I was shooting outside in the snow (yes, I had my pajamas on), I noticed that I have trained myself to scan peripherally within the frame before I shoot. I am a complete novice photographer, so this was radical and exciting. I also noticed that as I was walking, consciously widening my visual field seemed to deepen breathing and expand joy.