Reading Experiment

How long can we truly focus on a single activity?

In this durational performance, the artist sat reading books while meticulously documenting every interruption by hand. These included disruptions from others, but also self-inflicted breaks: checking a smartphone notification, getting up, letting the mind wander.

The hypothesis was simple but unsettling: we are increasingly unable to sustain attention on a single text, a single task. This work emerged before TikTok and the era of micro-content - yet already revealed how little unbroken attention we have left to give.

By recording each interruption as it happened, the fragmented nature of contemporary attention became visible - transformed from a private failing into a documented, shared phenomenon. The performance ran throughout the Schmiede Festival and continued during the final exhibition.