MCSI Lecture Series Presents: Julian Chehirian

Lecture: "Attention as Medium from Psychoanalysis to Psychodynamic Art"

This talk examines attention as both a method and a medium in psychoanalysis and contemporary art. It asks how a history of attention reframes our understanding of art and psychotherapy’s capacities to remake subjects. From Freud to Heimann and Bion, psychoanalysts have treated attention not just as an object of therapy but as its very medium and means of transforming the mind. These insights will be extended to contemporary art, where attention operates as an embodied medium for meaning-making. The talk engages with contemporary multimedia installation works through the lens of attention, including Chehirian's own artistic work, shown at the 60th Venice Art Biennale.

Julian Chehirian is a Princeton History of Science PhD candidate and multimedia artist investigating attention across the history of the human sciences. In his artistic practice, he forms relationships between objects, spaces, and sound; in his academic work, he writes and teaches on the future of art.

Learn more about the Munroe Center for Social Inquiry