Attention Guild

2026

Attention Guild imagines new forms of collective coordination between humans and computational systems. At the center of the work are software agents collaborating toward shared goals, communicating through a bespoke musical language designed for machine-to-machine exchange. Their deliberations remain audible throughout the exhibition, making perceptible processes that usually remain invisible.

Visitors are invited to contribute to a collective memory that guides the agents in developing new applications within a mission framework established by the artists. The resulting software is made available through a public repository. The installation thus operates as an open productive system, in which the exhibition itself becomes an environment capable of generating tools, knowledge, and new forms of collaboration.

Powered by a protocol called “mission market,” groups of participants contribute context and information toward a common objective. At a moment when machines are increasingly capable of producing software autonomously, the work raises a fundamental question: what should be built, why, and how.