Pledge Drive For Attention
What are your biggest digital distracitons?
The world’s first Pledge Drive For Attention.
Images by Astrid Mulder
How many hours can you give to the Pledge-O-Meter?
It’s time to steal your attention back from a distracting world. Imagine a future where our brains aren’t being mindlessly warped by attention stealing schemes.
The tech masterminds may want us clicking, scrolling and swiping – but why not put your own interests above their profit interests today? Say bye bye to brain rot and collectively break free from digital distractions.
Commissioned by Science Gallery Melbourne for DISTRACTION.
27 JULY 2025 - 9 May 2026
27 JULY 2025 - 9 May 2026
Make a pledge!
Keep in mind, you can pledge at any level.
Can you give one hour?
One hour a week for a month?
One hour a day for the whole month?
Our pledge desks are open. Did we mention you can make a new Pledge Buddy today?
Look around. Find someone that also wants to make a pledge. Together, you’ll be joining a community that is taking back what’s theirs. Their attention!
Over 12 years of attention has been reclaimed so far!
Stealing our attention back could really take off! We’re very well positioned for exponential attention growth.
Imagine a future centered around your own goals. Interests. Wellbeing. Fulfillment! Not brain rot.
By making a pledge today, you are making that future our reality.
Image by Darren Gill
2025-PRESENT
Primered at Science Gallery Melbourne July 2025- May 2026.
EXHIBITION
DISTRACTION plugs into the streaming torrent of content and the places our brains go when we want to focus on anything but the thing. You know… the thing you’re supposed to be doing right now? Your distraction of choice might be scrolling, daydreaming or exploring a digital universe. Where are we escaping to? What are we missing in the process? Confusion reigns, disinformation spreads and the truth is called into question. Attention becomes profit-driven, and it is hard to know who is really in control.
Yet we are creative and connective creatures, alive with an incalculable capacity to surprise. Look through a playful lens at the ways we devote our time and find space for ourselves in an increasingly nonsensical world. When we are bouncing around the whirring, flashing, pinball machine of existence, is our wayward attention a way of coping with the chaos?
Through local and international experimental projects – some developed in conversation with scientists and researchers – you are invited to participate in your own way. The time here is yours, what do you want to do with it?
Primered at Science Gallery Melbourne July 2025- May 2026.
EXHIBITION
DISTRACTION plugs into the streaming torrent of content and the places our brains go when we want to focus on anything but the thing. You know… the thing you’re supposed to be doing right now? Your distraction of choice might be scrolling, daydreaming or exploring a digital universe. Where are we escaping to? What are we missing in the process? Confusion reigns, disinformation spreads and the truth is called into question. Attention becomes profit-driven, and it is hard to know who is really in control.
Yet we are creative and connective creatures, alive with an incalculable capacity to surprise. Look through a playful lens at the ways we devote our time and find space for ourselves in an increasingly nonsensical world. When we are bouncing around the whirring, flashing, pinball machine of existence, is our wayward attention a way of coping with the chaos?
Through local and international experimental projects – some developed in conversation with scientists and researchers – you are invited to participate in your own way. The time here is yours, what do you want to do with it?
CURATORIAL PANEL
Bern Hall, Cass Norland, Fetle Wondimu Nega, Jeanette Chan, Qian Mo Cui, Tilly Boleyn, Zeth CameronEXPERT ADVISORY GROUP
Associate Professor Andrew Perfors, Professor Eduard Hovy, Dr Jasmin Pfefferkorn, Professor Katherine Johnson, Dr Melissa RogersonCREDITS
Laura Allcorn with Gloria Mark and Sci Curious
Laura Allcorn (USA) is an artist and founder of the Institute For Comedic Inquiry. Her collaborations with researchers explore how emerging technologies shape us and society. Laura’s projects revolve around a comedic premise designed for audience participation. Striking scenography immerses audiences in a speculative, satirical world and invites them to rehearse for the future they want.
Gloria Mark (USA) is Chancellor’s Professor Emerita at the University of California, Irvine. For over two decades she has researched the impact of digital media on people's lives: our distractions, attention, multitasking and stress. Her recent book is Attention Span, about our dwindling attention in the digital age, chosen by The Globe and Mail as the #1 Best Business book of 2023.
Science Gallery Melbourne's Sci Curious is a group of young and curious people who act as an advisory group for the Gallery, helping to inform and shape the future of our exhibitions and programs, and keeping young voices front and centre.
Technical Design of Pledge-O-Meter by James Paul.
Videography by Maree Prokos.
Pledge Drive Host played by Hazel Pigrum.
With special thanks to the following Pledge Makers: Anastasia Beasley, Chris Bennett, Eliza Borgeest, Melinda Brook, Janeca Cabanayan, Audrey Callanan, Anahatt Chhina, Jemima Christie, Qian Mo (Rita) Cui, Ruby Foster-Swain, Lucinda Gibson, Marcela Gómez Escudero, Imogen Hair, Fatima Kidwai, Claire Price, Chloe Woo.
Photography credit: Astrid Mulder
Laura Allcorn with Gloria Mark and Sci Curious
Laura Allcorn (USA) is an artist and founder of the Institute For Comedic Inquiry. Her collaborations with researchers explore how emerging technologies shape us and society. Laura’s projects revolve around a comedic premise designed for audience participation. Striking scenography immerses audiences in a speculative, satirical world and invites them to rehearse for the future they want.
Gloria Mark (USA) is Chancellor’s Professor Emerita at the University of California, Irvine. For over two decades she has researched the impact of digital media on people's lives: our distractions, attention, multitasking and stress. Her recent book is Attention Span, about our dwindling attention in the digital age, chosen by The Globe and Mail as the #1 Best Business book of 2023.
Science Gallery Melbourne's Sci Curious is a group of young and curious people who act as an advisory group for the Gallery, helping to inform and shape the future of our exhibitions and programs, and keeping young voices front and centre.
Technical Design of Pledge-O-Meter by James Paul.
Videography by Maree Prokos.
Pledge Drive Host played by Hazel Pigrum.
With special thanks to the following Pledge Makers: Anastasia Beasley, Chris Bennett, Eliza Borgeest, Melinda Brook, Janeca Cabanayan, Audrey Callanan, Anahatt Chhina, Jemima Christie, Qian Mo (Rita) Cui, Ruby Foster-Swain, Lucinda Gibson, Marcela Gómez Escudero, Imogen Hair, Fatima Kidwai, Claire Price, Chloe Woo.
Photography credit: Astrid Mulder