Celebrating the launch of Attensity!, the Strother School of Radical Attention (SoRA) holds a series of four participatory events where we will collectively create and test-drive vessels for human attention. Over the course of four weeks, four hosts will activate the Sanctuary Gallery in DUMBO with sound, film, objects and movement, and lecture performance. 

On February 22, visual artist and educator Taeyoon Choi presents Cotton King and A.I. God, a lecture performance unpacking the hidden ties between the cotton industry and A.I. Taeyoon guides us through his research with a custom interactive tool and music, making accessible connections between vast temporal and spatial distances while conveying the complexity of relationships between big tech and invisible labor. We will move through the attentional paths created by his alternative historical map, navigating the shadows of technologies which may at first glance appear ahistorical. 

This performance debuted at Seoul National University in November 2025, and a related site-specific work is featured in the exhibition Technology of Relations at MASS MoCA, on view from February 21.

Image: Taeyoon Choi, Cotton King A.I. God, Acrylics on Canvas, 2025. Courtesy of the artist

About the artist

Taeyoon Choi (Detroit, MI) explores the poetics of science, technology, society, and human relations. He works with computer programming, drawing, and writing, oftentimes in collaboration with fellow artists, experts and community members. His projects, participatory workshops, performances, and installations were presented at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Van Alen Institute, M+ Museum and more. Choi co-founded the School for Poetic Computation and taught classes there until 2020. Currently, he teaches Digital Art at Wayne State University, and serves on the board of AFIELD, an international network of changemakers.