The Economics of Attention

This was an interesting article. It tells us that during the twentieth century, artists developed their art to gain attention. In 1917, French artist Duchamp, along with two of his friends, purchased a urinal, painted R. Mutt on it and turned it upside down. This was entered in the Independent's art exhibition as a joke. This entry set the stage for the art show which was to show that art could be whatever the artist wanted it to be. Throughout the twentieth century, more pieces of art were simple things such as soup cans or bicycles. The things were used to attract attention which made them more meaningful. The things that were more commonplace showed the public that the physical object was truly insignificant. Duchamp wanted to diminish the seriousness of art and make it a game, and in 1923, he became so disillusioned with art that he stopped creating it. He became famous for taking an ordinary object, such as a bicycle wheel and displaying it so that everyone looks at it and says, "isn't that amazing" or "I wonder what the artist is trying to say", when the artist is laughing at the observers and thinking they're stupid for admiring a wheel.
The first futurists of the 20th century were led and financed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who presented his utopian vision in a "futurist Manifesto". He was determined to bring Italy into the future and many of his ideas sound like they could be from the 1960's. He spoke of the world being shrunk by speed and of global awareness. Looking into the future he realized that with scientific advances that man gained sense of his home, of the district where he lived, his region and his continent. Today, man is aware of the whole world that is available at his fingertips. He doesn't need to know what happened in the past, but wants to know what is happening all over the world.
Andy Warhol is called an economist of attention He wanted to be successful in business, which he considered the most fascinating kind of art. He asked his friends what he should paint and they told him to paint what he liked best in the world. He started painting money, but that wasn't his most favorite thing. In 1960, he began to paint pictures of Campbell's soup cans, all different flavors. In the beginning, the New York galleries would not display his work. No-one knew what to do with the mass-produced commercial still life. The Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles first showed Campbell soup cans in 1962. Being the somewhat wacky 60's, the art became a success. Warhol did not mock the objects of his art, as Duchamp would have done, but knew that what you saw was what you got. After Marilyn Monroe's death, Warhol purchased a 1950's publicity photo of her and had it converted into a silkscreen. He imprinted her portrait hundreds of times and furthered her status as a cultural icon.
These objects allowed Warhol to convert attention into money by representing the attention in physical objects.
The end-all attention grabber is to create a public personality that functions as an attention trap. The person actually becomes the art exhibit. The sad thing is that this kind of art exhibit is on the surface only, There is no substance behind it.
The rules of attention-economoy art as practiced by Andy Warhol are:

• build attention traps
• understand the log of the centripetal gaze and how to profit from it
• draw your inspiration from your audience and keep in touch with them
• turn the masterpiece psychology of conventional art upside down
• objects do matter
• live in the present.

This article could be written about many of the movie stars and artists of today. Their entire life is a fabrication. There is no substance to their thoughts, actions or morals. Their focus is on the attention they can gain for the moment.