CHRISTIE GEORGE
THE EMERGENCY WAS CURIOSITY
An Illustrated Book Report, Exhibition and Event Series Inspired by Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing*
*Also a pandemic scrapbook, a chronicle of trying and an archive of attention.
The Book Report
At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, I found myself returning again and again to Jenny Odell's remarkable book, How to Do Nothing. Inspired by Jenny's ideas about the interconnectedness of species and ways to cultivate individual creative attention, I started making a zine as a creative response - a remix of Jenny's ideas through hand-drawn illustrations, collages, watercolors and personal essays about the ways those ideas became more relevant during the pandemic. What started as a "book report" became my own practice of attention, a way of recording what things were like for me during that time. Sharing it more widely is a way of asking what things were (are) like for you. I hope you'll tell me.