Jenny Odell brings us an update on her ongoing project, the Bureau of Suspended Objects,
which seeks an archaeological approach to the present by researching
and archiving everyday discarded (or about-to-be-discarded) objects.
First displayed at the dump, the objects are seen as true artifacts:
crystallizations of a whole set of desires, economic contingencies,
material availabilities, and abstract valuations that are more specific
to their time than we could possibly realize now. As a result, all
objects come to seem "limited edition," and the present is understood as
imminently historical.

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