The August 30 Edition

“We are so easily distracted today, and we can’t focus on anything for too long. People come to see my  work and expect a million things to happen, but instead I  give them just one thing, an image on a very large scale, and it causes them to slow down and observe.” These are the words of Finnish light artist Kari Kola, whom we feature in today’s issue, speaking about his plan to stage the world’s biggest light art installation in history on our shores. He is right to say we are easily distracted. It’s well documented that digital devices are affecting our concentration – one recent piece of research suggests our average attention span is now 47 seconds – down from 75 seconds in 2012. Kola’s desire for his audience to slow down resonated with me as similar to the experience we want to give Good Weekend readers with our storytelling. We hope you get an opportunity to slow down and immerse yourself in today’s edition. – Melissa Stevens, editor.