Art, attention and audience: What brands still don’t get about attention — and artists do

As attention becomes the most contested currency in the digital economy, the lines between art, media and marketing are blurring in ways that few industries can ignore. Immersive experiences, emotional resonance and audience participation now matter as much as reach and frequency — lessons that artists have been grappling with long before brands entered the experience economy.

In this special episode of Storyboard18, Delshad Irani speaks with Doug Aitken, the acclaimed multimedia artist whose practice spans film, sculpture, immersive installations and architectural interventions. His latest exhibition, Under the Sun, currently on view at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, marks his first-ever exhibition in India. Spread across three floors, the show traces how humans experience time, technology and connection across past, present and future.

Curated by Triadic, the exhibition brings together curators Roya Sachs and Mafalda Millies, marking the group’s third collaboration with NMACC. Together, they continue to push a cross-disciplinary approach to cultural storytelling — one that mirrors how audiences today move seamlessly between physical spaces, digital platforms and shared social experiences.

The conversation explores what artists understand about attention that marketers often overlook, how social media and short-form content have reshaped audience engagement, and why authenticity has become non-negotiable in collaborations between artists and brands. As creator economies expand and technology transforms both art-making and monetisation, Aitken also reflects on how definitions of success are evolving in an age of hyper-connectivity.

At the intersection of creativity, technology and audience behaviour, this discussion offers rare insight into how cultural experiences are shaping the future of media, marketing and brand storytelling.

WATCH