“Clock time differs from lived duration; historical and cultural conditions – such as living in a convent – affect the perception of time, which has long occupied artistic practice.” This quote by T.J. Demos in “A Matter of Time” fascinates me. While it may seem obvious at first, it makes me a realize a concept that many people fail to notice. The perception of time is everything and everyone experiences time differently. Time perception is a field of study within psychology and neuroscience that refers to the subjective experience of time. It is measured by one’s own understanding of the duration of the indefinite unfolding of events. Furthermore, this concept brings to mind one of my favorite movies: Inception. In the film, time moves much more slowly in deeper “dream within a dream” levels. Minutes spent in a lower level translates to hours in an upper level.
In the second paragraph of “Paying Attention,” Jonathan Beller describes a new attention business created by an entrepreneur named Seth Goldstein. It is interesting that the business has two separate sides that are both economical and investigate the truth of opinions on the concept of attention. The Attention Trust side of the business makes users aware of how they are in fact viewed as a data trail and human time interfacing with machinery, while the other side, Root Markets takes this information and then sells it. Being a Baruch business school student, I must admit Goldstein has a great business model, albeit a somewhat unethical one. It’s no wonder he’s teamed up with the innovator of the securitization of home mortgages (which we all know was a key factor in the Great Recession of 2008).