Pointless, 2021
We live in an era dominated by a new medium that demands new forms of interaction and communication. A medium that imposes such an accelerated pace that it barely leaves us room to breathe, digest, or reflect. In this scenario, it seems that absurdity has become the guiding principle that drives us, and only those who push it to the extreme —capturing the greatest number of eyes and ears— will have the opportunity to influence the behavior of society as a whole.
This was my proposal for extreme absurdity: I tried to capture my full attention by following random instructions every second for 24 hours. Because, if attention is a limited resource that can be exploited, where exactly does its limit lie?
Attention has become a valuable asset —it can be captured, measured, and profiled, then used to target and trigger specific behaviors in us. I harvested my own attention so that you could buy it later, in a carefully designed spectacle meant to seize yours, with the ultimate goal of asking you one question:
Do you think it is possible to regain some agency over the flows of our own attention?
↑ Digital composition, arranged from left to right and top to bottom, showing the artworks derived from the performance.
Pointless, 2021
Details and dimensions:
- Series of 24 original and unique artworks, signed and numbered.
- Size of 29,7 W x 42 H cm (A3) including white margins.
- Clairefontaine Digital Colour Printing paper 300g.
- Dot grid laser printed on the front, performance instructions on the back.
- Hand-drawn pixels using black and red Edding 500 permanent makers.
- The performance was streamed on Twitch. Videos now hosted on Youtube.
Request your artwork.
1/24 🔴, 2/24 🔴, 3/24 🔴, 4/24, 5/24, 6/24, 7/24 🔴, 8/24, 9/24, 10/24 🔴, 11/24, 12/24 🔴, 13/24 🔴, 14/24, 15/24, 16/24, 17/24 🔴, 18/24, 19/24, 20/24 🔴, 21/24 🔴, 22/24 🔴, 23/24 🔴, 24/24 🔴.
- 99€ per artwork, taxes included if applicable.
- International shipping included (ships rolled in a tube).
- Additional costs such as duties or customs clearance fees, not included.
- Payment process via PayPal.
- Please do not expose it to direct sunlight to avoid colors fading.
Other pages linking to this page:
Pointless / Attention understood as a scarce resource
Pointless / The design to test the limits of my own attention
(test) Flickr gallery
Pointless / Attention understood as a scarce resource
Pointless / The design to test the limits of my own attention
(test) Flickr gallery
Pointless, 2021
My task was to follow 86,400 one-bit instructions, randomly generated by a computer at a rate of one per second.
Using a marker on a sheet of paper, I had to either paint or leave it blank according to the computer’s commands (yes or no), minimizing pauses to only what was strictly necessary.
If I lost my attention during the process, I had to stop the instructions, mark in red, and once I was ready to continue, start the instructions again.
At a rate of one instruction per second, each sheet theoretically represented one hour. Completing 24 sheets would amount 86400 instructions.
This performance serves as an experiment to test the limits of my own attention. The absurdity of the task, its challenge-based design, and the chosen narrative and visual language all come together as a playground to explore our understanding of attention —its value and its role in today’s digital society.
Other pages linking to this page:
Daniel Armengol Altayó
Pointless / Attention understood as a scarce resource
Daniel Armengol Altayó
Pointless / Attention understood as a scarce resource
Daniel Armengol Altayó / Gallery / Pointless
