Jess Henderson's Blog, page 3

Full Automation, Full Fantasy

On Content Moderators and the Illusion of AI.

This article was originally published in Rosa Mercedes,
the online journal of the Harun Farocki Institut.

‘The panic attacks started after Chloe watched a man die.She spent the past three and a half weeks in training, trying to harden herself against the daily onslaught of disturbing posts: the hate speech, the violent attacks, the graphic pornography. In a few more days, she will become a full-time Facebook content moderator, or what the...

Internesia: The Techno-Persuasion To Forget

This article was originally published in MARCH Journal of Art & Strategy.

We begin recalling a story from something seen online only to realize midway through that the facts are hard to retreive. Where did I see that quote? What was the name of that author? Where did I find this image again? Who was it that posted that tweet? How long ago was I on that page? The communication of a point evades coherent oral transmission and we side-step ‘I’m not doing it justice’ with a reference to a source ...

Shock Me. Please.

The following is an excerpt from my new book Offline Matters: The Less-Digital Guide to Creative Work, which can also be found in the current print issue of Amsterdam Alternative newspaper.

On Pervasive Boring Creativity

Who knew living ‘a creative life’ would feel so arid? Where is the joy, the excitement, the risk, or the shock? Nothing is shocking besides the diminishing sense of possibility – and the working conditions. The work is safe, predictable, and supposedly ‘predicted’. All...

Interview: Jess on ‘Offline Matters’ with MAEKAN

This week, long-time Outsider supporters MAEKAN published and interview with Jess about the 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 monolog...

To Be Continued: An Interview on Seriality (Part II)

Part two of an interview on serial media with Ryan Engley, Professor of Media Studies at Pomona College and one-half of the ‘Why Theory’ podcast.

Originally posted as part of my ongoing fellowship at the Institute of Network Cultures.

In Part One we talked about the basics of seriality and Serial Theory, its connections to psychoanalysis, the centrality of  ‘the gap’, and how streamed TV and binge watching fits into all this. This week we continue on the topic of serial media, discussing s...

“It wasn’t a conscious decision. It’s just that I was never on it to begin with.”

An interview with Eugene Thacker on the ‘dog and pony show’ of social media for writers in the digital age.



An implicit part of the daily navigation of our on and offline lives is that of the online persona. Who to be? How to be? Or, to be there at all? In the world of creativity-as-work (and beyond), the online profile has become the portfolio, the CV, the public image and the means of voice and visibility–to name but a few of the functions and expectations. In this interview from with TCI1,...

To Be Continued: An Interview on Seriality (Part I)

Talking TV series and psychoanalysis with Ryan Engley, Professor of Media Studies at Pomona College and one-half of the ‘Why Theory’ podcast.



To listen to the Why Theory podcast is to sit in a room with a warm professor-student-turned-friendship duo. With a palpable tone of fondness and special ability to translate complex concepts into understandable hour-long thought-snacks, Ryan Engely and his former professor Todd McGowen ‘bring together continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory to...

A Pseudo-Interview with the Moneyless Man

Mark Boyle has degrees in economics and business, and since 2008 he has lived without money. In 2007, a conversation with a friend sparked the pivotal realization that “money… creates a kind of disconnection between us and our actions.”

In his own words, “The practicalities of living without money are almost infinite, many of which I’ve detailed in The Moneyless Manifesto”. He’s since founded Freeconomy, and written two books. He’s also the only contributor to The Guardian who submits his...

The Right to Dissatisfaction

Being dissatisfied is an excellent way of being with the reader. Dissatisfaction with the current state of things–which is to say, dissatisfaction with inequalities, with surveillance, with competitiveness, with what Cassie Thornton calls ‘individually-flavoured capitalism’, with barriers to collectivity, with the pandemic and its implications and effects, to give a short list–is a revolutionary binding force. We discover a coming together precisely in the things wanting to keep us apart. That i...

COVID-19 Diary: Not Working

This is a repost from my COVID-19 Diaries at the Institute of Network Cultures.



This edition features a two-part anecdotal poem on ‘not working’, combining fragments of conversations and dialogues collected over the past three weeks.

1st July 2020 – PART ONE

“I hate work.”

“I love working.”

“I love work but it’s killing me.”

“I hate work but it’s saving me.”

My friend is 30 and being awarded her ‘Ten Years of Servitude’ new year from the bread company she works for. “I d...