What Happens When Summer Happens
On summertime study
Friends!
The past few days in New York City saw the return of summer: stoops, lawns, street corners, and park benches came alive with human activity. Joining the usual ambient soundtrack of trundling subways, occasional car horns, and distant sirens were the cheers and groans accompanying the Mets and Yankees series, reggaeton from a boom box, and cautious parents calling after their newly bike-mobile children to stop at the crosswalk. This might sound like conditions for sensory overload — or, it might just be the perfect site for STUDY.
In An Attempt at Exhausting A Place in Paris, novelist and filmmaker Georges Perec fixed his attention on a singular locale to observe the infraordinary, defined by Perec as “that which is generally not taken note of, that which is not noticed, that which has no importance: what happens when nothing happens other than the weather, people, cars, and clouds.” Throughout the course of his project, Perec documented “small poodle-type dog,” “wholesale potatoes,” and various buses along their routes. As the title to the project alludes, the occurrences of “nothings” seem infinite. It is harder to exhaust a place than one might think.
Extending creative study into the world is core to our work of realizing the radical possibilities of attention. In this special issue of The Empty Cup, we’re inviting you to a SUMMER OF STUDY, wherever you might be. We’ve asked members of our team to share their sites of study and the thinkers that inspire their chosen locales, and now we’re extending the invitation to YOU. Let us know where (and what) you’ll be studying in the comments — and invite others to join you!
Locally yours,
Czarina Ramos
Managing Editor
Where Are You Studying This Summer?
We asked members of the SoRA team about their summer study plans (when they’re not hard at work running our excellent summer programming, of course). Read about the trails, trains, and hotel lobbies where they’ll be reflecting on Donna Haraway, NBA Basketball, and children.
kyle barnes
Faculty, Study Corps
This summer, you’ll find me at…
The Prospect Park dog beach, where I can roll around my pearl of jealousy while watching the dogs cool off and go about their business, without even a clue what the words “AI agent”, “invoice” or “climate change” mean.
I’ll be thinking about…
Jack Halberstam’s Wild Things: the Disorder of Desire and Donna Haraway’s When Species Meet.
Quinn Marchman
Lab Facilitator
My site of study will be…
The Highbridge Trail, the perfect mix of nature and massive infrastructure. The special moment when standing over the Harlem River and you can see planes, trains, automobiles and boats (especially the Columbia crew teams). The last stop on the subway to finish reading a book. Getting out to explore the neighborhoods around it. The D train to Norwood is my favorite so far.
On my study curriculum are…
W.E.B Du Bois, Olivia Dean, Hanif Abdurraqib, The Bible, Assata Shakur, NBA Playoff Basketball.
Ali Lim
Designer
This summer, my study plans are to…
Stop by Tashkent Market before lunch where I’ll pick up food from their extensive selection of hot food before heading to Brighton Beach for the day, where I’ll contemplate life and soak up the sun. The heat flares up my eczema, but it’s worth it. I’m usually listening to music, reading, or watching people. If others are with me it’s an opportunity to have a deep conversation — and one of us is probably having a beer.
I’ll be thinking about…
Joaquín Sorolla because his work captures the color of summer and water. Unfortunately Sean Baker because of Anora, but I kind of despise him. Viktor Tsoi and Kino.
Richard Dent IV
Facilitator and Study Corps
Where you’ll find me:
There’s a little grove in Prospect Park on the south eastern corner that I am aiming to collect more frequently for my studies. Gas logs to sit on, trees to climb, feels great.
Here, I’ll be studying…
Walt Whitman.
Gwendolyn Olton
Organizing Lead
This summer…
I have two sites of study! The first is every conifer tree within a two block radius of my house on the east side of the city of Rochester. I’ve been studying them while I walk for months and have a ridiculous project in mind of trying to draw every single one of them this summer.
My second site is the Strong National Museum of Play. I find this place to be amazing, joyful, and a really challenging sensory overload — sometimes all at once. They take the study of play extremely seriously and have a toy hall of fame that includes cardboard boxes. This summer, I want to spend a little more time there, again, drawing some of the amazing exhibits but also just experiencing being in one of the most unique museums I’ve ever been in.
I’m taking inspiration from…
Jason Polan, who had the much more ambitious project of drawing everyone in NYC. He reached 50k before he died in 2020! The Power of Fun by Catherine Price. This quote from Lynda Barry, “That’s what a drawing is, a record of how your human hand is moving and the traces it left behind.”
Jahony Germosen
Partnerships Coordinator
You’ll find me studying…
The subway during rush hours. Watching others prepare for the beginning/end of their day is a reminder of how we are all just individuals living in a world much bigger than all of us. I see men taking calls underground (somehow?), children in uniforms, women in scrubs, older ladies with their big baskets, teenagers struggling to stay awake, and many in search of their next meal.
Through this study I am reminded of how special the city is and how unique yet intertwined all of our lives really are. No headphones, no book, just your eyes bouncing around the train cart very slowly.
Jonathan Gershberg
Facilitator and Study Corps
My summertime site of study will be…
My soon-to-be-born child’s nursery nook (we have a one bedroom so it’s not a full room, but plenty of space for an infant).
I’ve been thinking a lot about…
Tim Wu’s thinking on how human beings are being extracted from, our attention and money and data and time harvested for private corporate profit. With a new child, I am reckoning with how horrifying this reality is, and how we can organize to change it for my kid and all of our kids.
Eleanor Lambert
Study Coordinator
This summer, I’ll be attending to…
Hawk activity in Greenwood Cemetery; my partner’s Baba’s amazing garden in Bolechowice, Poland ; from my kiddie pool on my building’s outdoor 4th floor space; trying out the ferry ride to Rockaway Beach (instead of/in comparison with the train!)
I’m thinking about questions inspired by…
Báyò Akómoláfé, Joshua Schrei, and Sophie Strand — what does it mean to be human in ecologies of more-than-human beings? What happens when I put other beings, other relations, at the center of (my) devotional attention?
Peter Schmidt
Editor-in-Chief
You’ll find me studying at…
The lobby of the Ace Hotel on Schermerhorn St. There’s a table area that’s good for reading and a couch area that’s good for chatting. On Friday evenings, the vibe shifts from studious/productive to festive — DJ’s start spinning at 8pm.
On my curriculum at the moment is…
MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut.
D. Graham Burnett
Publisher
This summer I’m studying…
Sound in space, with my dear friend and collaborator Julian Chehirian, an installation artist and historian of the mind sciences. We’re doing a residency together out at Pioneer Works, making a working model of the “sound cage” experiments used to explore auditory attention in American psychology laboratories in the 1890s. Check out Julian’s SoRA studio course on this stuff later this summer, Speculative Psychotechnics!
My inspiration?
I wear a bracelet sometimes that reads “WWALD” — which stands for “What Would Annea Lockwood Do?” The great composer/sound-artist would… listen.
IRL
A rundown of what’s up at the Strother School of Radical Attention in Brooklyn
Thu, May 21st: ATTENTION LAB: COALITION, an experiential, participatory workshop dedicated to the joint exploration of radical human attention with a focus on COALITION’s role in Attention Activism. Register HERE.
Tue, May 26th: Our three-week online seminar, ATTENTION ACTIVISM 201, begins. Participants will focus on developing the organizing, facilitation, and movement-building skills required to build groups for ATTENTION ACTIVISM. The bulk of the course will be dedicated to supporting participants toward an organizing project in their own communities. Register HERE.
Sat, May 30th - Sun, May 31st: Join us for SING THE BODY ELECTRIC!: an all-night reading of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, as a celebration of one of the oldest human technologies, lyric poetry. Register HERE.
Find more workshops, events, and gatherings here!