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), and apexart (NY). I have been an artist in residence at Recology SF (the dump), the San Francisco Planning Department, and the Internet Archive. From 2013 to 2021, I taught digital art at Stanford University. My first book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, was published in 2019. My second book, Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock, publishes in March 2023 and is available for preorder. You can see my other writing here.
recent-ish:
- interview on Finding Our Way with Prentis Hemphill
- interview on The Sacred podcast
- interview on NPR's LifeKit: "How paying attention can help you appreciate what's right in front of you"
- in conversation with Angela Garbes about her 2022 book, Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change at the Commonwealth Club, SF
other selected interviews / conversations:
- 1A (NPR) radio segment: "Margaret Atwood And Jenny Odell On The Joys Of Birdwatching"
href="https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/jenny-odell-on-taking-the-time-you-need-to-notice-think-and-grow/">interview in The Creative Independent, 2020
- interview on the Ezra Klein Show, 2019
- interview on the Longform podcast, 2019
Agent: Caroline Eisenmann (ce@goldinlit.com), Frances Goldin Literary Agency
Publicity contact: Carrie Neill (cneill@penguinrandomhouse.com)