Aims of Attention: The Relation of an Idiom to Aesthetics and Terrorism

Abstract

Attention aims at something as it posits some kind of focusing. At the same time it attracts attention, it is itself aimed at in certain ways. Therefore the term ‘aims of attention’ has a double meaning, indicating both an attention to something outside attention and attention to attention itself. The paper highlights these two aspects of attention in the critical literature about the relation of, on the one hand, attention and, on the other hand, terrorism and theatricality. This relation is normally represented in terms of an opposition between attention and violence. The paper aims at collapsing this opposition: by drawing on Heidegger’s term the Ge-stell, the paper surveys the violence implicit in any act/aim of attention.