Vision: Build Salon as conscious resistance to the attention economy’s human fracking in de-industrialized America.
SALON GOALS
Use human companionship across generations to create citizens, not subjects:
- SHARE learning
- SHARPEN human skills for consciously resisting dehumanizing forces
- GENERATE collective action that enhances life in our communities
FELLOWSHIP GOALS
- SUPPORT six NE Ohio fellows to understand human fracking & consciously resist
- PROMOTE SoRA to NE Ohio, USA, the globe
WHAT WE DID in 2025
Deep Dive. Completed an interconnected training track including bi-weekly fellowship calls, Attention Activism 101, 201 Training, and monthly Educators for Attention (EfA) calls. Supported by SoRA educators, we leveraged these frameworks to design the language and strategies needed for conscious resistance.
Sound Bath Pilot. Ran sound bath attention exercise in rural Ohio with five people using "Deep Hockets" by Pauline Oliveros & SoRA educator guidance (most report images come from this event).
First Salon Cycle. Completed six sanctuary experiences covering * NAFTA-trade-inequality-politics, * tech-humans-anti-social-century-or-awakening, * storytelling & impact, * rest & productivity, *naming history & sustained development, *cycle review & next step.
Long-term Community. Building short-term fellowship into longer-term collaboration with the SoRA community.
WHAT WE LEARNED
Awareness & Liberation. "The 'algorithm's' impact is broad, deep, & growing. Awareness does not = liberation from addictive fracking. Unsettling.
Naming Comes First. Focus on the attention economy is exploding. Sanctuaries help people resist its fracking. This is a Luddite moment. Will we do better?
The Work Ahead. SoRA launched at the right time. How do we translate dense academic content for "the people"? How do we sell the critical value in a productivity-obsessed culture?
NEXT STEPS
Cycle Two Launch. Build on Salon founders' cycle one reflection & sound bath experience in October 2025. Launch seven-nine month cycle in January 2026, expanding membership, integrating national and local experts, understanding its value in civic, work, education, media sectors.
Media Partnership. Recruit local, national, or global journalist to walk with us in cycle two built for de-industrialized communities in swing states like Ohio.
Build More Attentionauts. With SoRA activists: link fellowship to impact in communities via exercise write-ups for the SoRA library; find journalist; open Cleveland chapter of Avis Tertia.
SoRA ecosystem. Promote the 2026 book "Attencity" locally + join national organizing calls on Study Corps expansion + monthly EfA session.
Scale the Model. Integrate SoRA learning into sustainable development ventures for deindustrialized areas + scale SoRA impact through local, Fortune 500, AI sector, and national philanthropic capital.
Impact
"Chase Hughes released a haunting perspective on the long-term impact of ... devices and modern media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsF3REbr-44"
~ National 101 Student
"I REALLY enjoyed the 101 course with dynamic facilitators and classmates from across the USA."
~ National 101 Student
"I woke up smiling with the memory of our Sound Bath."
~ Ohio Sound Bath Participant
"[Rest is] a radical act in our productivity-obsessed culture... [L]earning to pause has become rebellious and essential ... [to] navigat[ing] the tension between doing and being."
~ Final Salon Cultivar session reflection
"Love the idea of getting a Midwest or national/global reporter involved. I have a background in PR. Would love to connect... I do some work with [a local independently organized event that brings the spirit of TED to my community]... Would love to chat about your project."
~ Local Organizing Fellows
"If D. Graham Burnett's New Yorker essay, 'Will the humanities survive artificial intelligence?' is spot on, what then? How do we live? It seems like we fellows show different ways for relational being, sensing, and choosing."
~ National Organizing Fellow
~ Photos by Molly Lipe (https://www.mollylipephotography.com/)