Information Overload and Database Aesthetics
Kristin Veel · Comparative Critical Studies · 2011
Everyone knows what constitutes attention. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalisation and concentration of consciousness are its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state, which in French is called ‘distraction’ and in German ‘Zerstreutheit’.1