The Order of the Third Bird

The Order derives its name from a tale about the ancient Greek painter Zeuxis. According to the story, Zeuxis painted an image of a boy carrying grapes and left it outside to observe how birds would react. Three birds approached: the first pecked at the painted fruit (fooled by the illusion), the second saw the boy and flew away frightened, but a third bird stopped and assumed a pose of contemplation, "seemingly lost in thought." This third bird, who stops to contemplate a work of art, inspired the Order to formalize what they call "a practical aesthesis" focused on the object itself rather than its history or meaning. Contemporary manifestations The Order's activities have been documented in various locations including "a library in Jerusalem, a masonic lodge in Los Angeles, a disused railway tunnel in London, the bank of a small creek in rural Pennsylvania, and the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo" in 2018. The Order has been described as a "secret society of writers and artists" who gather to view artworks in structured sessions. Their activities have been featured in museum exhibitions and workshops, including the 2016 exhibition "Wound: Mending Time and Attention" at Cooper Union, where participants engaged in what the American art historian and critic Martha Schwendener called a "fun and supremely geeky three-hour protocol for looking at art objects." ==Practices and philosophy==

Joint attentional protocols The Order practices what Citton describes as "joint attentional protocols" that draw upon collective attention techniques to transform the experience of artwork. These protocols rely on participants' ability to alter their attention in concert, hence "providing powerful impressions whose specificity has much to do with the nature and tonality of the group." French intellectual historian Maxime Boidy connects their practice to W.J.T. Mitchell's canonical question "What do images want?" Boidy describes Order members as "infirmiers de l'attention" (attention nurses) who "develop rituals that consist of gathering in front of a neglected work, image, or architectural form to compensate for its attentional deficit," suggesting that what images fundamentally want is attention. Attentional activism Citton frames the Order's work within the broader framework of "attentional activism," positioning their practices as a response to contemporary attention crises. He describes members as functioning like "attention attendants" or "attention nurses," with their prolonged observation sessions serving as "care exercises" for artworks that "are suffering from the lack of attention paid to them." Their work represents an intervention in what Citton calls the "attentional flows" of contemporary culture, where artworks often receive only fleeting glances. ==Research==

ESTAR(SER) The Esthetical Society for Transcendental and Applied Realization (sometimes with "Now including the Society of Esthetic Realizers" added), known as ESTAR(SER), is a scholarly body that researches the historicity and practices of The Order of the Third Bird. ESTAR(SER) maintains what it calls "The W-Cache," described as a vast archive of materials related to the Order's history and activities. The society publishes research in The Proceedings of ESTAR(SER) and collaborated on the book In Search of the Third Bird, published by Strange Attractor Press. ==Reception==

The Order's practices have influenced discussions in attention studies, museum education, and contemplative pedagogy. Their work has also been cited in debates about digital distraction, with some viewing their protocols as potential "training apparatuses for attention" in an age of information overload. ==See also==