Stillness: ad + tendere

Stillness: ad + tendere is a video project that resists the pull of the “Attention Economy.” In a culture where media profits from distraction and urgency, our attention is fragmented and our willpower eroded. This work offers an antidote: quiet spaces for unhurried observation.

The title returns us to the root of “attention”—from the Latin ad + tendere, “to stretch toward.” To attend is to exert will, to remain with a subject even as other impressions compete for our gaze. When our attention is commodified, not only are our daily choices disrupted, but our capacity for patience, reflection, and self-determination is diminished.

These works are what I call videographs: silent, uncut recordings that rely on photographic composition to reveal the depth within ordinary scenes. By removing sound, the experience becomes picture-like, encouraging viewers to truly look—without distraction, without narrative cues—until subtle shifts and hidden details emerge. Like still photographs extended through time, they reward those willing to dwell.

Presented on wall-mounted iPads, the scale invites a quiet intimacy. Their placement creates a window-like presence within the exhibition space, contrasting the overwhelming scale of commercial screens with a personal, contemplative encounter. Each videograph becomes a site of resistance, where viewers can slow their nervous systems, recalibrate their attention, and rediscover beauty in the banal.

Ultimately, Stillness: ad + tendere asks: Can you find magic in the mundane? As David Hockney reminds us, “The process of looking is the beauty.”