jenny odell | the bureau of suspended objects

As a visual artist, I've long had an appreciation of doing nothing - or, more properly, making nothing. I had been known to do things like collect hundreds of screenshots of farms or chemical-waste ponds from Google Earth, cutting them out and arranging them in mandala-like compositions. In The Bureau of Suspended Objects, a project I did while in residence at Recology SF, I spent three months photographing, cataloging, and researching the origins of two hundred discarded objects. I presented them as a browsable archive in which people could scan a handmade tag next to each object and learn about its manufacturing, material, an corporate history. At the opening, a confused and somewhat indignant woman turned to me and said, "Wait . . . so did you actually make anything? Or did you just put things on shelves?" I often say that my medium is context, so the answer was yes to both.

Part of the reason I work this way is because I find existing things infinitely more interesting than anything I could possibly make. The Bureau of Suspended Objects was really just an excuse for me to stare at the amazing things in the dup - a Nintendo Power Glove, a jumble of bicentennial-edition 7UP cans, a bank ledger from 1906 - and to give each object the attention it was due. 

... A more recent project that acts in a similar spirit is Scott Polach's Applause Encouraged, which happened at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego in 2015. On a cliff overlooking the sea, forty-five minutes before the sunset, a greeter checked guests in to an area of foldout seats formally cordoned off with red rope. They were ushered to their seats and reminded not to take photos. They watched the sunset, and when it finished, they applauded. Refreshments were served afterward.

Jenny Odell, "How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy"

Website: The Bureau of Suspended Objects