My wife and I saw The Accountants in the theatre last night. The Accountants is a mixed methods performance theatrical piece, that centres on the experiences of two characters, one of Indian British heritage, and the other of Chinese British heritage. There were a dozen dancers on stage performing highly choreographed movements. Alongside the dancers on the stage, were three screens – one wide screen in the centre, flanked by two giant phone screens.
While the performers moved and twisted in unison, the centre screen showed facts and figures about India and China, including statistics about basic demographics, social media usage, the great wonders of the world represented in both countries, and much more. All the while, the mobile screen captured a series of conversations in form of texts and voice notes between the two characters, named Liam and Kash.
About 35 minutes into the play there was an intermission, at which point I turned to my wife and we talked about our perceptions of the play hitherto. We realised we’d both struggled to focus our attention on one aspect because there were so many things happening on stage at the same time. We talked about how, between the dancers, the big screen and the two phone screens, there was so much vying for our attention. We continuously shifted our attention from one to the other and back, and in so doing, we couldn’t properly focus on, or take any of them in.
This is an apt metaphor for the society we live in today. We’ve created a world where we’re constantly bombarded with stimuli left, right and centre. From our phones, tablets and TV screens, to the super-sized digital billboards in our city centres, there’s so much stimuli coming at us, and it is just impossible to pay attention to them all.
Our daily experiences are determined and influenced by what we choose to pay attention to. Sure, some stimuli are louder than others, some stimuli shine brighter than others, and some stimuli titillate our senses more than others, but these aren’t necessarily the stimuli we should pay attention to. The things that beam loudest and shine brightest may seem like worthwhile objects of our attention because they’re the things we’ve been conditioned to want, but they may not necessarily be the things we need to flourish.
As I wrote last week, our lives are the sum total of all our experiences. Similarly, the time we spend flicking between fleeting experiences is time not spent making art, engaging with soul-nourishing content, and contributing to the betterment of society. I don’t know what sorts of design decisions went into the production of The Accountants. I don’t know whether their decision to include multiple streams of content and stimuli was meant to spark a conversation about how and where we should focus our attention, and I don’t know if the other theatre-goers came away with an entirely different experience than me and my wife. One thing’s for sure, it’s got me thinking about the limited time we get to spend on this earth, and how to ensure we make the most of it.
P.S.: My debut non-fiction book, Art Is The Way, and my middle-grade novella, A Hollade Christmas, are out everywhere now. You can get them in all good bookstores and from all major online vendors.