As the only audio journal in the field, Attention is unique in exploring architectural culture through sound, using audio to transform the way that architecture is understood and appreciated. Attention is disseminated freely as a semi-annual curated collection of podcasts through its website and different podcast platforms such as iTunes, communicating issues in contemporary architectural culture, theory, and practice to a listening public. By precluding visual media, the journal strikes a distance from the distraction economy of much online media, creating an intimate and reflective space for the in-depth development of topics. Through interviews, round-table debates, oral histories, field recordings, the exploration of archival recordings, experimental music, soundscapes, reportage, and audio essays, Attention seeks to expand the forms and audiences of architectural criticism, reportage, and debate. Issue 5, “The Future of Theory,” poses a series of questions to scholars and architects about the state of theory in architecture, scrutinizing its history, its ongoing meanings and uses, and its relevance in a global world. Issue 6, “Community,” guest-edited by Anna Goodman, sheds light on historical and contemporary debates about the architects’ role in building and rethinking community, ranging from community planning in the 20th century to contemporary models of community-based design and involvement. By engaging with different modes of storytelling, Issue 7, “Detective Stories,” guest-edited by Megan Eardley, will critically examine the rise of detective work in contemporary architecture and spatial research.

Joseph Bedford is the founding editor of Attention. Currently, he is assistant professor of history and theory at Virginia Tech. He holds a PhD in the history, theory, and criticism of architecture from Princeton University and was the recipient of the 2008–09 Rome Prize at the British School in Rome. Bedford has taught design and history and theory courses at Princeton University, Pratt Institute, and Columbia University. In addition to his research, he develops new media projects in architecture that range from documentary film to audio podcasts, video exhibitions, and live-streamed events. He is founding director of The Architecture Exchange, a platform for theoretical exchange between architecture and other fields. Bedford has published numerous articles in journals such as Architecture Research Quarterly, AA Files, and Log.

Curt Gambetta is a coeditor of Attention. He is a fourth year PhD candidate in the School of Architecture at Princeton University. Prior to his PhD studies, he was the Banham Fellow at the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and a teaching fellow at Woodbury University in Los Angeles. He received an MArch degree from Rice University and a BA from Vassar College. During the 2000’s, he was a resident of the Sarai program of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in Delhi, India, where he was involved in a number of initiatives in new media, including moderation of the urban study group e-list, the design of a digital archive of historical documents about urbanism, and other projects. His design and research practice has included a number of public installations, salons and curatorial residencies in Houston, Buffalo and Los Angeles, as well as ongoing research about the architecture and urbanism of waste infrastructure.

Anna Goodman is guest editor for Attention, Issue 6: “Community.” She is currently assistant professor and a fellow at the Center for Public Interest Design in the School of Architecture at Portland State University. Her most recent scholarly project explores how American architectural educators have used “community design-build” throughout the 20th century to adapt the profession to changing governmental landscapes. She received her doctorate from the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley and holds a BArch from Rice University. Her research has been supported by the Graham Foundation through its Carter Manny Award program and the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation.

Megan Eardley is guest editor for Attention, Issue 7: “Detective Stories.” She is a PhD candidate in the School of Architecture at Princeton University and a fellow in the Princeton Environmental Institute’s Energy and Climate Scholars program. Her research examines spatial experiments pursued by the South African mining industry in the second half of the twentieth century. Before pursuing her PhD, she co-founded THE FUTURE WEIRD—a film screening series focused on new and non-narrative film in Africa and the Global South. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

The Architecture Exchange was founded in 2013 in London by Jessica Reynolds of vPPR Architects and Joseph Bedford, then of Princeton University, and now of Virginia Tech, as a nonprofit organization whose mission is to foster cultural exchange and public debate between architecture and other discourses. Operating at the intersection between academia and public culture, the Architecture Exchange aims to foster a free, open, and inclusive conversation about architectural ideas, while seeking to develop those ideas in depth through various modes of exchange. It is dedicated to exploring the possibilities of different formats of exchange (such as round-table debates, interviews, workshops, podcasts, oral histories, dinner conversations, writing letters, etc.) and seeking, through these different formats of exchange, to catalyze new, deeper and more inclusive ways to think about architecture.