Ambient Commons: Attention in the Age of Embodied Information

by Malcolm McCullough

The world is filling with ever more kinds of media, in ever more contexts and formats. Glowing rectangles have become part of the scene; screens, large and small, appear everywhere. Physical locations are increasingly tagged and digitally augmented. Sensors, processors, and memory are not found only in chic smart phones but also built into everyday objects.

Amid this flood, your attention practices matter more than ever. You might not be able to tune this world out. So it is worth remembering that underneath all these augmentations and data flows, fixed forms persist, and that to notice them can improve other sensibilities. In Ambient Commons, Malcolm McCullough explores the workings of attention though a rediscovery of surroundings. Not all that informs has been written and sent; not all attention involves deliberate thought. The intrinsic structure of space -- the layout of a studio, for example, or a plaza -- becomes part of any mental engagement with it.

McCullough describes what he calls the Ambient: an increasing tendency to perceive information superabundance whole, where individual signals matter less and at least some mediation assumes inhabitable form. He explores how the fixed forms of architecture and the city play a cognitive role in the flow of ambient information. As a persistently inhabited world, can the Ambient be understood as a shared cultural resource, to be socially curated, voluntarily limited, and self-governed as if a commons? Ambient Commons invites you to look past current obsessions with smart phones to rethink attention itself, to care for more situated, often inescapable forms of information.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, Psychology, Design, Architecture, Cultural

347 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Evin Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started off slightly awkwardly, like a hermit navigating a cocktail party with tequila shots, but steadily evolved into sober coherence.

In the first 100 pages, McCullough behaved as though he only had 1 minute left on earth and you were the only available receptacle of knowledge. Mercilessly, he cornered you as soon as you made eye contact walking through the door, and, in between gulps of jungle juice, unleashed his data dump:

MM: HELLO. I'm sure it's a relief to you to be retreating from an annoying set of glowing rectangles at work to a soothing set of glowing rectangles at home. (p.51)
EE: Yes, I...
MM: Electronic media complicate this overlay. Ubiquitous technologies exacerbate this anytime-anyplace problem. Music and television feeds show up where they are not welcome. Mobile phones lead to inconsiderate use. Self-service touchscreen with network connections mediate ever more kinds of transactions. As ever more diverse media cut ever deeper into everyday life with links and portals to someplace else, people suspend not only disbelief about where they are at the moment, but eventually also a more general sensibility to surroundings. (p.96)
EE: (moving down the hallway)
MM: Wait! I don't think you realize that the ambient commons of this room is seducing you to move away from me. You feel like walking through one of the doorways, whether you need to or not. (p.97)

But then, after grabbing a drink and easing into the party, you begin to ruminate on what he said and circle back for more, intrigued:

MM: You again! I'm sorry...I think I am the embodiment of a new dark age of information superabundance. (emo tears) (p. 106)
EE: There, there...
MM: It's just that...air itself is in the air! (p.167)
EE: ...(hands MM more jungle juice)
MM: (sobs)

His charts were the "embodiment" of irony, as much of his book aimed to draw attention to the overabundance of information. I still laugh thinking about page 71. Wading through the semantics was worth it, however, as McCullough is making a unique attempt to bridge multiple theories of futurism: an intersection of history, technology, architecture, society, and the very philosophy of human nature itself.

Particularly fascinating was Chapter 11, which delved into cultural interpretations of space, the American "frontier mentality" affecting our policy towards information commons, coffee shops as the birthplace of thought exchange, and what the cities of the future could look like. I found all these interlaced subjects fascinating. I hope everyone takes a moment to contribute to the ongoing discourse of molding these, what are sure to be, breathtaking new frontiers in human society.

Ultimately, this book made me REALLY curious as to what McCullough's personal office looks like. A quick Google search yielded no satisfaction, but I was unsurprised to find the following profile:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Emmmc...

This guy needs a cocktail party!

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty nice overview of the ambient factors of our hyper-technological world. This book hits at the pervasiveness of attention grabbing apparatuses, though fails to go far enough to link these to power, capital, and/or the state form. (Though I am partial to the argument that the latter is irrelevant, it would still be nice to see it mentioned).

I liked the chapter on architecture, but that was mostly due to me thinking about what it lacked: a consideration of how architecture is used for control. It seems like one would have to do some work to mention the 19th century restructuring of Paris but leave out any mention of Haussmann. There is also a pretty weak understanding of Debord and the Situationists (with, of course, no mention of any of the other major players).

I also liked a chapter near the end that reframed the overabundance of media as "pollution." That sort of language makes a lot more sense to me than trying to rationalize how much or what type is "acceptable" (it's easy for this to be boiled down to a moral discussion). The chapter after this, though not really offering any conclusive evidence, speaks of biological limits on filtering and an idea of "peak distraction" with which we, as humans, cannot comfortably deal. The book ends with a discussion, and consideration, of silence and an invocation of natural noise rather than the intentionally created type that surrounds us.

[David Barrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who has looked at art and sought to understand our perception of it could draw you to some of the embodied/disembodied experiences that McCullogh looks at in this book: and in many ways, he's applying some old figure/ground, subject/object dialogues to urban life and an age of superabundant data. But what's so good about this book is its timeliness. Creative culture just now, fueled by corporate commercial interests and their political yes-men, is slave to 'smart cities' and 'ubiquitous data' boosterism. McCullogh raises some important questions about shared resources and informational ethics. Who owns our data? Who owns our attention? Just as we have a right to be heard and remain silent, do we have a right to be left alone?

[avery · Rating 1 out of 5]

So pretentious like how many times can you repeat phone bad and Gen Z is stupid as fuck like literally just get over it

[Howard Mansfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambient Common is a cautiously optimistic survey of the swiftly arriving era of “pervasive computing.” Or call it “augmented reality” or “ambient information.” Just as this technology is just beginning to weave itself into almost everything we will use, see and touch, it has no agreed-upon name.
Malcolm McCullough’s chief concern here seems to be find a middle way that will preserve our commons – our rights to places that are silent and “unmediated” – while at the same time allowing us to realize the benefits of what he calls “ambient” technology.
That McCullough raises more questions than he answers is fine in a survey like this. It’s the questions he doesn’t ask that are troubling. For example, if the “internet of things” – digital control of urban infrastructure in real time – is to have untold numbers of citizens reporting in, what about the possibilities for hacking and terrorism?
Still, what McCullough has to say will leave the reader with new ways to think about our era of “peak distraction.”

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

McCullough is definitely a curmudgeon, and I disagree with the amount of executive attention that he suggests smartphones require (of digital natives), and I think that they have a materiality to them that he does not adequately take into account, but I read very sympathetically when he starts talking about information pollution and rights to attention and silence and the importance of attention and methods to safeguard it. But perhaps that is because I am also, at heart, a curmudgeon.

[Ninakix · Rating 2 out of 5]

more related to how screens and interactive materials are changing architecture and how we think about the configurability of space. Interesting, but dense.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS BOOK WAS REALLY NIFTY AND OFFERED A LOT OF HADN'T-THOUGHT-OF-THAT IDEAS ON HOW TO COMBAT PEAK DISTRACTION

[Paul Hartzog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malcolm McCullough is always on the mark. This book is a tidy collection of things we should be thinking about as we move along in the digital age, but probably aren't. Insightful and provocative.

[Whoisstan · Rating 5 out of 5]

inspiring.