For this commission, “cosmos” does not mean outer space alone. It refers to the larger realities within which individual life is already entangled - realities that exceed us in scale, duration, reach, or complexity. It includes the stars and sky, but also the atmosphere, the biosphere, a watershed, gravity, migration, the metabolism of a city, technological infrastructures, invisible forces and fields, and deep time.
Our present relationship to these realities is increasingly strange. We know more about them than any humans before us, yet we rarely feel ourselves inside them. Daily life can tend to run flat and instrumental, while encounters with the “cosmos” are set aside for special occasions: the wilderness trip, the eclipse viewing, the festival, the planetarium show.
At the Ministry of Cosmic Affairs, the Department of Attention is concerned with what may be lost when cosmic relation becomes something we occasionally visit rather than something we practice within everyday life.
Our present relationship to these realities is increasingly strange. We know more about them than any humans before us, yet we rarely feel ourselves inside them. Daily life can tend to run flat and instrumental, while encounters with the “cosmos” are set aside for special occasions: the wilderness trip, the eclipse viewing, the festival, the planetarium show.
At the Ministry of Cosmic Affairs, the Department of Attention is concerned with what may be lost when cosmic relation becomes something we occasionally visit rather than something we practice within everyday life.
We therefore ask:
What is at stake for our capacity to cultivate attention toward that which is larger than us?
The stakes might be ecological, ethical, psychological, civic, spiritual, or political. They might concern grief, scale, time, dependence, humility, or care.
The Ministry does not expect a solution to these conditions. We are asking you to take a position on why another quality of attention might matter now - and to let that position give purpose to the device you propose. Your position should identify not only what concerns you about contemporary life, but what we might discover, recognize, or reconsider by attending differently.
What is at stake for our capacity to cultivate attention toward that which is larger than us?
The stakes might be ecological, ethical, psychological, civic, spiritual, or political. They might concern grief, scale, time, dependence, humility, or care.
The Ministry does not expect a solution to these conditions. We are asking you to take a position on why another quality of attention might matter now - and to let that position give purpose to the device you propose. Your position should identify not only what concerns you about contemporary life, but what we might discover, recognize, or reconsider by attending differently.