Fire's dancing flames provide an important counterpoint experience to the media landscape we enjoy—they can satisfy our senses and free our thoughts.
Humans evolved to be captivated with visual activity around us, and we evolved socially around fire's light, heat, and safety for hundreds of millenia.
Although we revel in the continuous distraction of our entertainment feeds, the stories we read, see, and hear can occupy our brains where we normally have thoughts and real person-to-person conversations.
I'm exploring how our traits for social attention are engaged by fire-like visual effects, and how they might offer a respite from the attention economy.