The Viaduct: Attention Is an Art Form
This is final lecture of The Viaduct Fall 2025 Lecture Series.
Attention Is an Art Form by Adam Robbert
This talk begins with a simple claim: attention can be shaped and refined on purpose. To this end, we’ll look at how three factors—practice, memory, and orientation—work with attention to make such shaping possible. Drawing on ancient and modern thinkers, we’ll consider how the art of attention connects to the art of living and, in the process, how these activities transform who we are and what shows up for us in perception.
Adam Robbert a philosopher, writer, editor and the founder of the Theōros project a series of lectures and events in the SF-Bay area exploring the role of contemplation in the humanities in the 21st century.
Event Timing
6:00 PM: Doors Open and Live Music
7:00 PM: Lecture Followed by Q&A
8:30 PM: Social Hour
10:00 PM: Event Concludes
Patron Tickets
Our patrons make the work that the Toronto Society does possible. Every patron ticket includes
A reserved front row seat for every lecture
Dinner with the lecturer following the show
An invitation to the post-series Toronto Society Ball
Access to all future series before public release
Our Vibe (The Toronto Society Etiquette Guide)
Toronto deserves the most welcoming intellectual community in the world.
Society events are a place for our community to learn, make friends, and develop their ideas. Everyone should feel energized, engaged, and most importantly at ease. Here are a few pointers to help build that spirit:
Put in the effort. The most interesting dialogue you will have all week will be at a Toronto Society event but being part of a sparkling conversation takes work. Pay attention. Really listen. Push your thinking. Try to make the other person laugh. Dress 10% better than you usually would.
Extend grace to everyone. We’re here to learn together. Learning means being able to make mistakes. No one knows everything and no one should ever be made to feel bad about their ideas.
Prioritize Love. We do this because we love to learn, we love the world and believe we can make it better together, or because we simply love to spend time with our friends. Whatever the motivation, we want to make things better. This means bringing a spirit of optimism, however tentative, and not cynicism, nihilism or the desire to outsmart or undermine.
About the Viaduct
The Viaduct is a lecture series highlighting people and ideas that could transform our city. Season Two is about crossing—between knowledge and mystery, the imagined and the real. Each lecturer will build their own span of ideas for you to walk across: Shrek and the fear of being loved; the psychology of horror and its strange seductions; and more. Each lecture will be preluded by live music played by local artists, from R&B to classical. We meet to be changed—by a sentence that rearranges the mind, a frame that lingers in the dark, a story that can only be told once. Patron ticket holders will join the speakers for a private dinner after each lecture. The season ends with a Regent-era country ball—bring a date, or leave with one.
About the Toronto Society
The Toronto Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is building intellectual infrastructure that will promote education, community, and cultural creativity for the next 100 years and beyond.
Notice of Filming and Photography
When you attend this event, you enter an area where photography, audio, and video recording will occur. By entering the event premises, you consent to this recording and its release, publication, exhibition or reproduction.