Nothing will come of nothing? Text & art for June 8 discussion
Hi friends,
I'm writing with a quick update on the plans for June 8. I'd like to read How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. It's a bit more book-clubby than most of our usual reads, which for some reason I feel like I need to apologize about 😂. That hang-up aside, I think it will offer a good way to mentally transition to a summer season that is hopefully spacious, expansive, restorative.
Following on our previous session's emphasis on attunement and tempo, I think Odell's work will give us some additional framework for thinking about how to create space for uncertainty and inefficiency (and why we might want to).
Alongside the text, I'd love to consider two artworks:
- The Bureau of Suspended Objects, also by Jenny Odell
- The Library of Missing Datasets by Mimi Ọnụọha
Both of these, to me, are examples of how richly significant various 'nothings' can be. Whether considering discarded objects (Odell), gaps in official record-keeping (Ọnụọha), the hidden curriculum of higher ed, or blank space in a printed poem, silence and nothingness are far from empty. I invite us all to think together about the rich possibilities of indeterminacy, quietness, things that interrupt progress and profit.
Hope you can join us; register here.
Warmly,
Katina
