I am an multi-disciplinary artist and writer based in Oakland, California. My work generally involves acts of close observation, whether it's birdwatching, collecting screen shots, or trying to parse bizarre forms of e-commerce. In one of my favorite projects, I created The Bureau of Suspended Objects, a searchable online archive of 200 objects salvaged from the San Francisco dump, each with photographs and painstaking research into its material, corporate, and manufacturing histories. I am compelled by the ways in which attention (or lack thereof) leads to consequential shifts in perception at the level of the everyday.

My visual work has been exhibited at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, the New York Public Library, the Marjorie Barrick Museum (Las Vegas), Les Rencontres D'Arles, Fotomuseum Antwerpen, Fotomuseum Winterthur, La Gaîté Lyrique (Paris), the Lishui Photography Festival (China), apexart (NY), and East Wing (Dubai). I have also been an artist in residence at Recology SF (the dump), the San Francisco Planning Department, and the Internet Archive.

My book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, was published by Melville House in 2019. I am represented by Caroline Eisenmann (ce@goldinlit.com) at the Frances Goldin Literary Agency. For inquiries related to How to Do Nothing, please contact publicity at at Melville House (publicity@mhpbooks.com); please note that I have limited availability as I am currently working on a second book.

recent / upcoming:
- KQED Forum panel: "What Do Deadlines Mean To You?"
- 1A (NPR) radio segment: Margaret Atwood And Jenny Odell On The Joys Of Birdwatching
- LA Review of Books: "Stuck in the “Right Now”: A Conversation with Jenny Odell"
- How to Do Nothing now available in Spanish and German

selected interviews:
- May 2019 interview on the Ezra Klein show
- July 2019 interview on the Longform podcast
- September 2019 interview in The Guardian
- May 2020 interview on The Creative Independent