JENNY ODELL on the Attention Economy /222
“You Are Under Arrest” from Jenny Odell’s project Neo-Surreal, a collection of work that extracts intentionally and unintentionally surreal imagery from 1980s BYTE magazine ads. PHOTO: Vintage computer wearing a policeman’s hat and wielding a riding crop set against a gradient backdrop.
Our attention has operated as currency for the past couple of decades, but with the invasiveness of social media and technology, our ability to exit and enter the attention economy has been severely hindered. As we feel pressure to post and comment on everything for an unknown audience, do we inherently limit our capacity for complexity and vulnerability? And what are the extended ramifications of becoming illiterate in complexity? How does this ripple out into all of our relationships?
In lieu of the demanding world buzzing inside our devices, guest Jenny Odell shares the brilliance of doing “nothing”, tending to the ecological self, and growing deeper forms of attention through a commitment to bioregionalism. We begin our conversation looking at how the attention economy takes on a new meaning in the digital age and the anxiety we experience in a consumer-driven society. Acknowledging the privilege of being able to rebuke all technology, Jenny moves us into an understanding of “refusal-in-place”, where if we are unable to remove ourselves from this economy, we can still find creative ways to resist it and develop practices that alter our perspective and encourage us to listen and observe the complexity of the world around us.
“What is a way of interacting and being in the world without completely succumbing to the attention economy all the time?”
Photo of Jenny Odell
Jenny Odell is a writer, artist, and enthusiastic birdwatcher based in Oakland, California. She is the author of How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Odell teaches digital art at Stanford University and has been an artist in residence at the San Francisco Planning Department, the Internet Archive, and Recology SF (otherwise known as the dump).
♫ The music featured in this episode is “Beam” by Harrison Foster, “Bird Lady” by Harrison Foster, “Mississippi Broad” by Bosques Fragmentados, “To The Birds” by Samara Jade, and “Where The Birds Are” by Kritzkom.
Episode References
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
Why Birds Do What They Do by Jenny Odell
The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
Jenny’s Recommendations
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials by Malcolm Harris
One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka
Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World by David Abram
Leaning Into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy (2017)
Winged Migration (2001)
Action Points from Jenny
“These are East Bay specific, but…”
Donate to People’s Breakfast Oakland
Become a member of the California Native Plant Society
We aim to be a gathering place for ideas and solutions ensuring that the growing body of work that we steward remains accessible to the public. If you want to see us continue, or perhaps are especially moved by the episode you are listening to today, please become a monthly sustaining member through our Patreon or consider making a one-time donation directly to us through our website. To stay up-to-date on our work, sign up for our newsletter.
For The Wild is a slow media organization dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling. We are rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth, and consumerism. As we dream towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity, our work highlights impactful stories and deeply-felt meaning making as balms for these times.