berardi

on Interview

Interview: Jess on ‘Offline Matters’ with MAEKAN

An interview with long-time Outsider supporters MAEKAN about my new book Offline Matters.

When did creative work become so boring? When did ‘digital-first’ come to dominate everything? …and why is nobody talking about it?

Offline Matters with Jess Henderson
Interview by Charis Poon

“In reading Offline Matters I saw the thoughts I don’t give myself time to think articulated precisely in black and white. Here in front of me were the contents of the inner monologue that runs through the background of my professional life as a designer, writer, and strategist. But this book is much better than anyone’s stream of consciousness, because the author, Jess Henderson, spells out with clarity and conviction the reasons behind those perpetual nagging sensations of dissatisfaction, boredom, and incredulity that is doing creative work for money.
… →

 
on Writing

Premonition: Pessimists & Slackers

This is the third post in my Premonition series.

Premonitions are a series of critical foresights by Ruth Les. The scenarios and ideas are concerned with possibilities, not probabilities. ‘…We should not be confined by the probable. We should discover the possibility hidden in the present.’ – Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi

 

 

Permission for Pessimism

 

‘PERMISSION GRANTED. BUT NOT TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT’
– John Cage

 

‘Two kinds of pessimism: “The end is near” and “Will this never end?’
― Eugene Thacker

 

A Premonition for Pessimism

In our emergence from life during COVID-19 we will see new found respect for Pessimist thought. Long thrown from the scene, Pessimist philosophy will be taken seriously, and prior tyrannical ‘positive thinking’ taken in bad taste.

When we all became precarious cognitarians, freelancing our lives away in knowledge work, the abstraction of our worlds was all consuming. Though we were workers, we were not standing in lines of industrial production. What we produced was immaterial, and abstract. The main thread of capitalism’s own evolution is ongoing abstraction. We communicated not offline or face to face, but through abstracted means. The angle of this communication took pronounced ‘positive’ positions. Something Positive is a site set up during the pandemic to present solely positive news about it. Click the button ‘More Positive Vibes’ for continuous hits of feel-good developments; Apple says contractors will be paid during COVID-19 shutdown (Wall Street Journal), or, A rockhopper penguin at Chicago Shedd Aquarium makes unlikely friends with three Beluga whales (The Guardian).

Particularly speaking from experience in the creative industries, to not be explicitly positive was an employment death sentence. In the social scene too, negativity was not allowed. Who wants to hang around with Negative Nelly when you can be with Optimist Oli?

… →