58 of 100: Focus

Stuff is happening in my life that is distracting me from this blog. But today I would just like to post a few links to an interesting feature in the New York Times, "10 Minutes." As they put it, "Focus is a skill. We'll help you practice." And further (from the initial posting, on July 20):

Our attention spans may be fried, but they don’t have to stay that way.

In a modest attempt to sharpen your focus, we’d like you to consider looking at a single painting for 10 minutes, uninterrupted.

Our exercise is based on an assignment that Jennifer Roberts, an art history professor at Harvard, gives to her students. She asks them to go to a museum, pick one work of art, and look at only that for three full hours.

We are not asking for hours. But will you try 10 minutes?

The practice is called "slow looking"; you can read more about it here. And Roberts's actual assignment is available here; it's useful for giving a whole set of 16 aspects of a painting/work of art to think about.

The first work of art in the NYT series is Nocturne in Blue and Silver by James McNeill Whistler. And the next week, they published a follow-up article with readers' reactions.

The second is the ca. 1500 tapestry The Unicorn Rests in the Garden. 

Yesterday they posted the third in this experimental offering, Canopy by Catherine Murphy (2020).

And they are promising two more, which I will include here when they appear.

Ezra Klein featured a professor and author of the book Attention Span, Gloria Marks, on his podcast back in January. It's one I've given a repeat listen to: I can use all the help I can get staying focused.

I'm going to give these "10 Minutes" exercises a try as well. I think it will be good for me. 

Update: the work of art posted for 9/26 was Hiroshige's Great Bridge: Sudden Rain at Otake.

And on 10/3, an "unfinished, finished" portrait by Alice Neel from 1965—the last in the series. I've enjoyed these little exercises. I hope the instigators bring the feature back.