Author Event: Attention is Discovery by Anna Von Mertens

Join us for a special event with Anna Von Mertens, author of Attention is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. This event is free, but we appreciate your RSVP below so we can plan for your attendance.

A portrait of trailblazing astronomer Henrietta Leavitt and an illustrated exploration of the power of attention in scientific observation, artistic creation, and the making of meaning. A portrait of trailblazing astronomer Henrietta Leavitt and an illustrated exploration of the power of attention in scientific observation, artistic creation, and the making of meaning.

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years—a figure we can calculate because of the work of Henrietta Leavitt (1868–1921), who spent our galaxy, the Milky Way, has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years—a figure we can calculate because of the work of Henrietta Leavitt (1868–1921), who spent decades studying glass plate photographs of the night sky. Visual artist and researcher Anna Von Mertens's Attention Is Discovery is a fascinating portrait of this remarkable woman who laid the foundation for modern cosmology, as well as an exploration of the power of looking and its revelatory role at the center of scientific discovery. Researcher Anna Von Mertens's Attention Is Discovery is a fascinating portrait of this remarkable woman who laid the foundation for modern cosmology, as well as an exploration of the power of looking and its revelatory role at the center of Ushering us into the scientific community of women who worked alongside Leavitt, now known as the Harvard Computers, Von Mertens describes the inventive methodologies Leavitt devised to negotiate the era's emerging photographic technology.

Interspersed with Von Mertens's meticulously researched and lyrically written are collaborations with art historian Jennifer L. Roberts, cosmologist Wendy Freedman, astrophysicist João Alves, and novelist Rebecca Dinerstein Interspersed with Von Mertens's meticulously researched and lyrically written essays are collaborations with art historian Jennifer L. Roberts, cosmologist Wendy Freedman, astrophysicist João Alves, and novelist Rebecca Dinerstein Knight. Alongside Leavitt's process, evident in her astronomical logbooks and inknotations on the glass plates, Von Mertens includes details of the hand-stitchedquilts and graphite drawings that she made in response to Leavitt's legacy. Photographs made by Jennifer L. Roberts using a macro lens amplify the material richness of these artworks and archives. This interweaving of text and image engages and rewards the reader's own close attention. Highlighting ways that subtle, repeated actions build meaning—whether skilled, technical observation, the crafting of an object, or the mundane tasks that construct our exquisite lives—Von Mertens's pairing of close looking with close reading creates a layered portrait of Henrietta Leavitt that acknowledges the significance of her discovery and the richness of its inheritance.

Visual artist and author Anna Von Mertens is the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Public Understanding of Science and Technology book grant in support of Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, published by the MIT Press in 2024. The book is an expansion of Von Mertens’s 2018-2019 exhibition at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, which traveled to the University Galleries of Illinois State University and Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in 2023. She received a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she studied dark matter as a structuring force in our universe, and a United States Artists Fellowship in Visual Arts. Her labor-intensive artworks use material intelligence as a lens to see science and history and have been widely exhibited at institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Berkeley Art Museum; RISD Museum; Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery; Aspen Art Museum; Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, and National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design in Oslo, Norway. The artist is represented by Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon.

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