Xeni Jardin is a journalist, a blogger, and a TV pundit. As a co-editor of Boing Boing, one of the most popular blogs on the Web, Jardin serves as an Internet-based coolhunter for the futuristic, or, as Defamer puts it, a "sexpot Wired reporter sent from 15 minutes in the future to send back information about our inferior technology to some alien race." In addition to writing for Wired, Jardin files reports on subjects ranging from robot battles to zero gravity flight for NPR's "Xeni Tech" and opines regularly on the latest high tech gadgetry for CNN and Fox News. Part Fritz Lang's Maria in "Metropolis," part Marilyn Monroe on a cellphone, in Jardin, as the L.A. Times advises, we may behold the wizard of blogs.
Visit Xeni Jardin online.
Susannah Breslin: You're a bit of an enigma. What does your name mean, and how do you describe what you do?
Xeni Jardin: A journalist friend said "Xeni" is Chinese for "NSFW." I am not a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. I prefer to think of myself as an Oki Dog wrapped in pastrami wrapped in a tortilla.
SB: You are perhaps best known as one the co-editors of Boing Boing. How do that gig come about and what's it like to be a part of the team? I would imagine you get tons of submissions. How do you decide which ones to post?
XJ: I met Mark Frauenfelder at a dinner party hosted by some mutual pals in Los Angeles, and told him how much I loved Boing Boing. He, in his inimitably generous and hospitable way, said: "That's nice, why don't you come over and guestblog sometime?" At the time, Boing Boing featured rotating guestbloggers that changed every few weeks or so. I was so thrilled, I choked on my gnocchi. After the paramedics resuscitated me, I said, "Gnarrgghhh, cough, yes," then guestblogged for a few weeks. Mark, Cory, and Pesco appreciated my insightful, hard-driving coverage of fluorescent WiFi dildo news, so they let me stay.
What we post includes stuff we find or ferret out on our own, and stuff other people suggest. Our readership has grown a lot in the past few years; so has the number of submissions we receive each day. We get hundreds. We'll never have enough time to get to all the really good ones, but we try.
One funny thing about suggestions we receive are the evergreen ones that have been around forever, but inevitably new people discover and think they're the first to find. We get them every day, these chestnuts. One of them is: "Type in 'failure' to Google, see what happens." Another would be the Microsoft/http thing--if you accidentally insert an extra "http" before a web url, you'll end up at Microsoft.com because the company owns the "http.com" domain, but some people see this and presume that Microsoft has "bought the internet."
I post what fascinates me. Cory, Mark and Pesco do the same. If it makes us laugh, if it seems important, if it's disturbing, if it's beautiful, if
it makes our jaws drop open, if we reflexively grunt, "Wooo! Shiny," then we must post it.
SB: You are one of the few bloggers who has successfully transitioned into becoming a mainstream media commentator. Blogs are seen by some as the antidote to mainstream media. How do you straddle the gap? Do you see the Wild, Wild West of the Internet and mainstream media as codependent or in a state of conflict?
XJ: I was a journalist before I was a contributor to Boing Boing. I've always wanted to be a journalist, and I've always been a nerd. Blogging is just a faster, more efficient, and more independent way to publish. Having access to a blog is a wonderful luxury--whatever strikes my interest, whatever seems cool or newsworthy, I can follow it and share it with our audience immediately without having to wonder whether a producer or editor is going to approve of it. But the speed involved in blogging can be a detriment--there's pressure to crank out a lot of material each day, and that pace doesn't lend itself well to the kind of slow, deep analysis that other outlets might. I feel very fortunate to be able to work in more than one medium. It forces me to try and think in new ways. It's like having a balanced diet.
SB: You're a bit of an iconoclast in that you are a woman who writes about technology.
XJ: I think that's overrated. Women have been always part of contemporary tech development--from the "computers," "logicians," women who calculated equations in nuclear weapons research back in the WWII era, to robotics pioneers like Cynthia Breazeal, to female hackers and gamers. I'm not that unusual. We've always been here. But historically, women in technology just don't tend to receive the same kind of money, exposure, or respect as their male counterparts.
SB: What is the attraction of technology for you?
XJ: Technology is power. Power is irresistibly attractive, irresistibly
fascinating, and not always a good thing.
SB: You don't shy away from the subject of sex, whether it's sex machines or the government's various attempts to legislate pornography. How does human sexuality fit into the intellectual lineup inside your mind--is it the heart of the matter or the next frontier?
XJ: I don't really know. Part of it may be the fact that sexuality is as much a fundamental part of what it is to be human as the need to breathe or eat. Part of it is a thrill seeking instinct--robots, rockets, and forbidden erotica online--all exciting stuff. All adrenaline rush. Part of it is that I love to make people wince. Nudge them out of what feels comfortable. Push them into the future.
SB: Last year, the LA Times ran a long profile of you, deeming you "the wizard of blogs," and there is something uniquely otherworldly about you, for those who encounter you on the Web or in real life. It's almost as if you have a real identity in real life and a technology-borne identity that is more fluid or translucent or shapeshifting. Is this something you cultivate or are aware of?
XJ: This isn't something unique to me, it's just a way of life. You can walk around in the world inside a connectivity cocoon, and live in different realms at once. With your handheld phone/computer/video camera/television, you might wander around in real space and maintain a text conversation with several people on the other side of the world, while you're watching video from somewhere else and snapping photos of whatever's around you. Split attention creates a multilayered sense of presence, and identity. You're here, and you're in the ether, at the same time, at all times. Video games teach us to project ourselves into other realms, and maintain attention there. That's kind of magical and scary.
SB: You're multilingual and you speak geek. Are words and images identity in the digital age?
XJ: I've always loved language, and cracking a new language is not unlike learning new code. Yes, certainly--the streams of text we produce in email, on blogs, on IM, in SMS messages--all of that becomes a kind of aura that others can read. A smoke trail we leave behind, that those close to us--or everyone in the world--can trace.
SB: I would imagine you receive some interesting feedback from people around the world as you blog. What is the strangest or most interesting feedback you've gotten from a reader? What is the most interesting thing you've come across on the Web and blogged about? Do you ever self-censor?
XJ: This was one of the greatest.
We get amazing emails from people all of the time. Critical ones, supportive ones, people pointing out things we didn't know. I think the interaction with readers is absolutely the most gratifying part of this. The ones that mean the most are those we receive after blogging about something that really matters to someone. During Hurricane Katrina, for instance. Emails from people who were displaced and reacting to what we posted on Boing Boing about what was happening. Or most recently, people who were close to Jill Carroll.
Every day there's something huge in your in box that just seems like the most mindblowing thing ever. Some of the most memorable things were things I experienced in the "real world" and blogged about online. Like the Zero-G flight, for instance. Other things I haven't forgotten are also things I've never blogged, because they're too creepy. Some sites that include extreme sexual or violent content, or illegal content.
"Censor" implies that you're making compromises out of fear. I hope I'm capable of making choices driven by some kind of integrity, and I try to do that. But, sure, I try to be responsible, factually accurate, and avoid doing harm. And I try to remain mindful that people do read this stuff, and that it will long outlive me. I don't want to look back in ten years and regret any of it. I think all four of us on Boing Boing agree that being good citizens online involves not being mean.
SB: You used to be a punk rocker. What about now? What kind of music does a nerd-futurist sing along to in the shower?
XJ: Yeah, it stays in your blood like lead paint chips. The nose ring holes will never heal, and the little home-brewed punk tattoo on my arm won't either. I have a lot of old ripped 80s and 90s punk on my iPod, but there's plenty of other stuff in there too. Opera, ambient, jazz, funk and rare grooves. I listen to stuff friends send me. And DJs like Florian Keller, Gilles Peterson, and Q-Burns Abstract Message.
SB: You're a photographer, and you've been a muse for some pretty unusual photographic experiments: Jacob Appelbaum's infrared shots and Steve Diet Goedde's black-and-white fetish snaps included.
XJ: Siege, Steve, Jake--I love their work, and sitting for them was a huge honor.
SB: What is it like to be the observed as opposed to the observer?
XJ: We all live like that now, don't we? We watch TV, suck down movies, download music, at the same time we document our lives with phonecams, blogs, podcasts...
SB: In 2004, you got to experience zero gravity. Describe what that was like. I believe you could fly.
XJ: If you've ever dreamed of flying: you know exactly how it feels. Wonderful. I can't wait to fly again.
SB: Who are your favorite fashion icons, designers, stars, and when are we all going to be able to wear clothes that live and breathe?
XJ: I want to have Tom Ford's clone-baby. I love following the tech-fashion stuff that people are brewing in their garages, the designer nobody knows about yet. The 21F mailing list is great for keeping up with that stuff. I love simple, clean, uncluttered design that doesn't try to be more than the user needs--some of that is here now, but wonderful examples of that were here 50 years ago, too. Early Balenciaga or Chanel, for instance.
SB: We are unable to make up our minds about technology and where it's taking us: to a new utopia or a horrifying dystopia. You say?
XJ: Everything I do is about peering into the future, and documenting what's there. But where we're going terrifies me.
SB: What do you think of Suicide Girls?
XJ: H4w7.
by Susannah Breslin
Visit Xeni Jardin online.
Susannah Breslin: You're a bit of an enigma. What does your name mean, and how do you describe what you do?
Xeni Jardin: A journalist friend said "Xeni" is Chinese for "NSFW." I am not a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. I prefer to think of myself as an Oki Dog wrapped in pastrami wrapped in a tortilla.
SB: You are perhaps best known as one the co-editors of Boing Boing. How do that gig come about and what's it like to be a part of the team? I would imagine you get tons of submissions. How do you decide which ones to post?
XJ: I met Mark Frauenfelder at a dinner party hosted by some mutual pals in Los Angeles, and told him how much I loved Boing Boing. He, in his inimitably generous and hospitable way, said: "That's nice, why don't you come over and guestblog sometime?" At the time, Boing Boing featured rotating guestbloggers that changed every few weeks or so. I was so thrilled, I choked on my gnocchi. After the paramedics resuscitated me, I said, "Gnarrgghhh, cough, yes," then guestblogged for a few weeks. Mark, Cory, and Pesco appreciated my insightful, hard-driving coverage of fluorescent WiFi dildo news, so they let me stay.
What we post includes stuff we find or ferret out on our own, and stuff other people suggest. Our readership has grown a lot in the past few years; so has the number of submissions we receive each day. We get hundreds. We'll never have enough time to get to all the really good ones, but we try.
One funny thing about suggestions we receive are the evergreen ones that have been around forever, but inevitably new people discover and think they're the first to find. We get them every day, these chestnuts. One of them is: "Type in 'failure' to Google, see what happens." Another would be the Microsoft/http thing--if you accidentally insert an extra "http" before a web url, you'll end up at Microsoft.com because the company owns the "http.com" domain, but some people see this and presume that Microsoft has "bought the internet."
I post what fascinates me. Cory, Mark and Pesco do the same. If it makes us laugh, if it seems important, if it's disturbing, if it's beautiful, if
it makes our jaws drop open, if we reflexively grunt, "Wooo! Shiny," then we must post it.
SB: You are one of the few bloggers who has successfully transitioned into becoming a mainstream media commentator. Blogs are seen by some as the antidote to mainstream media. How do you straddle the gap? Do you see the Wild, Wild West of the Internet and mainstream media as codependent or in a state of conflict?
XJ: I was a journalist before I was a contributor to Boing Boing. I've always wanted to be a journalist, and I've always been a nerd. Blogging is just a faster, more efficient, and more independent way to publish. Having access to a blog is a wonderful luxury--whatever strikes my interest, whatever seems cool or newsworthy, I can follow it and share it with our audience immediately without having to wonder whether a producer or editor is going to approve of it. But the speed involved in blogging can be a detriment--there's pressure to crank out a lot of material each day, and that pace doesn't lend itself well to the kind of slow, deep analysis that other outlets might. I feel very fortunate to be able to work in more than one medium. It forces me to try and think in new ways. It's like having a balanced diet.
SB: You're a bit of an iconoclast in that you are a woman who writes about technology.
XJ: I think that's overrated. Women have been always part of contemporary tech development--from the "computers," "logicians," women who calculated equations in nuclear weapons research back in the WWII era, to robotics pioneers like Cynthia Breazeal, to female hackers and gamers. I'm not that unusual. We've always been here. But historically, women in technology just don't tend to receive the same kind of money, exposure, or respect as their male counterparts.
SB: What is the attraction of technology for you?
XJ: Technology is power. Power is irresistibly attractive, irresistibly
fascinating, and not always a good thing.
SB: You don't shy away from the subject of sex, whether it's sex machines or the government's various attempts to legislate pornography. How does human sexuality fit into the intellectual lineup inside your mind--is it the heart of the matter or the next frontier?
XJ: I don't really know. Part of it may be the fact that sexuality is as much a fundamental part of what it is to be human as the need to breathe or eat. Part of it is a thrill seeking instinct--robots, rockets, and forbidden erotica online--all exciting stuff. All adrenaline rush. Part of it is that I love to make people wince. Nudge them out of what feels comfortable. Push them into the future.
SB: Last year, the LA Times ran a long profile of you, deeming you "the wizard of blogs," and there is something uniquely otherworldly about you, for those who encounter you on the Web or in real life. It's almost as if you have a real identity in real life and a technology-borne identity that is more fluid or translucent or shapeshifting. Is this something you cultivate or are aware of?
XJ: This isn't something unique to me, it's just a way of life. You can walk around in the world inside a connectivity cocoon, and live in different realms at once. With your handheld phone/computer/video camera/television, you might wander around in real space and maintain a text conversation with several people on the other side of the world, while you're watching video from somewhere else and snapping photos of whatever's around you. Split attention creates a multilayered sense of presence, and identity. You're here, and you're in the ether, at the same time, at all times. Video games teach us to project ourselves into other realms, and maintain attention there. That's kind of magical and scary.
SB: You're multilingual and you speak geek. Are words and images identity in the digital age?
XJ: I've always loved language, and cracking a new language is not unlike learning new code. Yes, certainly--the streams of text we produce in email, on blogs, on IM, in SMS messages--all of that becomes a kind of aura that others can read. A smoke trail we leave behind, that those close to us--or everyone in the world--can trace.
SB: I would imagine you receive some interesting feedback from people around the world as you blog. What is the strangest or most interesting feedback you've gotten from a reader? What is the most interesting thing you've come across on the Web and blogged about? Do you ever self-censor?
XJ: This was one of the greatest.
We get amazing emails from people all of the time. Critical ones, supportive ones, people pointing out things we didn't know. I think the interaction with readers is absolutely the most gratifying part of this. The ones that mean the most are those we receive after blogging about something that really matters to someone. During Hurricane Katrina, for instance. Emails from people who were displaced and reacting to what we posted on Boing Boing about what was happening. Or most recently, people who were close to Jill Carroll.
Every day there's something huge in your in box that just seems like the most mindblowing thing ever. Some of the most memorable things were things I experienced in the "real world" and blogged about online. Like the Zero-G flight, for instance. Other things I haven't forgotten are also things I've never blogged, because they're too creepy. Some sites that include extreme sexual or violent content, or illegal content.
"Censor" implies that you're making compromises out of fear. I hope I'm capable of making choices driven by some kind of integrity, and I try to do that. But, sure, I try to be responsible, factually accurate, and avoid doing harm. And I try to remain mindful that people do read this stuff, and that it will long outlive me. I don't want to look back in ten years and regret any of it. I think all four of us on Boing Boing agree that being good citizens online involves not being mean.
SB: You used to be a punk rocker. What about now? What kind of music does a nerd-futurist sing along to in the shower?
XJ: Yeah, it stays in your blood like lead paint chips. The nose ring holes will never heal, and the little home-brewed punk tattoo on my arm won't either. I have a lot of old ripped 80s and 90s punk on my iPod, but there's plenty of other stuff in there too. Opera, ambient, jazz, funk and rare grooves. I listen to stuff friends send me. And DJs like Florian Keller, Gilles Peterson, and Q-Burns Abstract Message.
SB: You're a photographer, and you've been a muse for some pretty unusual photographic experiments: Jacob Appelbaum's infrared shots and Steve Diet Goedde's black-and-white fetish snaps included.
XJ: Siege, Steve, Jake--I love their work, and sitting for them was a huge honor.
SB: What is it like to be the observed as opposed to the observer?
XJ: We all live like that now, don't we? We watch TV, suck down movies, download music, at the same time we document our lives with phonecams, blogs, podcasts...
SB: In 2004, you got to experience zero gravity. Describe what that was like. I believe you could fly.
XJ: If you've ever dreamed of flying: you know exactly how it feels. Wonderful. I can't wait to fly again.
SB: Who are your favorite fashion icons, designers, stars, and when are we all going to be able to wear clothes that live and breathe?
XJ: I want to have Tom Ford's clone-baby. I love following the tech-fashion stuff that people are brewing in their garages, the designer nobody knows about yet. The 21F mailing list is great for keeping up with that stuff. I love simple, clean, uncluttered design that doesn't try to be more than the user needs--some of that is here now, but wonderful examples of that were here 50 years ago, too. Early Balenciaga or Chanel, for instance.
SB: We are unable to make up our minds about technology and where it's taking us: to a new utopia or a horrifying dystopia. You say?
XJ: Everything I do is about peering into the future, and documenting what's there. But where we're going terrifies me.
SB: What do you think of Suicide Girls?
XJ: H4w7.
by Susannah Breslin
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
I think wizard is the wrong term - she is an intellectual steam-punk sorceress.
;-)