On Tuesday, Feb. 10, The Mulvane Art Museum hosted associate professor and chair of philosophy Rik Hine’s Gallery Talk regarding the relationship between attention, visual literacy and social media’s effect on the two.

“A really big part about this is about the relationship between attention and this higher faculty of visual literacy and how that’s getting hijacked by contemporary social media,” Hine said. “So, we have this kind of higher faculty that I would argue is an important part of living a flourishing life, living a good life and it’s being hijacked by these media platforms that don’t want us to have sustained attention.”

Hine built on this, claiming that recent research, a study dating back to 2023, suggests that the average time at which someone can pay sustained attention to anything is for eight seconds. 

“Goldfish can do it for nine [seconds],” Hine said.

When asked what he hoped viewers would get out of this message, he shared his thoughts.

“Some kind of conscious awareness of just how damaging these social media platforms are. John Stuart Mill said, ‘Look, surely it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than it is to be a fool satisfied.’ And I think most of us don’t realize that half the time we’re walking around and we’re fools thinking we’re satisfied,” Hine said.

Hine touched on the “Attention Economy,” and how our attention is becoming a form of currency used by these social media platforms. 

According to Stacy Ash, education coordinator, the Mulvane Art Museum hosts between 4-6 events, such as gallery discussions per semester. These talks connect with the exhibition being displayed at the time.

“The museum seeks to engage our audience in multiple ways with the artworks in our exhibits,” Ash said. “This serves to create deeper meaning and connection to what people observe in the galleries. We do this with artists and curator talks, skill-building workshops and guided tours. In this instance, Rik Hines, who guest curated ‘Staying Focused,’ led a discussion on his thought process and the rewards of practicing sustained focus. Essentially, we hope these types of events encourage further exploration.” 

The Mulvane Art Museum plans to continue discussing the idea of an attention economy with a writing workshop on Feb. 25 with English lecturer Dennis Etzel Jr. at the main level galleries in the Mulvane Art Museum.

Information can be found on the Mulvane Art Museums website. 

Edited by Stuti Khadka and Bidhya Sapkota