Kelly Pendergrast is a writer and researcher from New Zealand living in California.
Email me at kellypendergrast@gmail.com to commission writing, send compliments, etc.
Find me for now on Bluesky at @kellypendergrast.bsky.social.
With Anna Pendergrast, I run Antistatic, a small research and communications consultancy focused on digital technology and its social and environmental impacts. Get in touch if you are interested in hiring or collaborating with Antistatic.
I write essays and articles about images, material culture, bodies, and computers for a range of outlets. Often solo, sometimes co-authored. Recent work includes:
The World Is Toxic. Welcome to the Metabolic Era, Wired, July 2023. You can’t avoid toxicity in a world driven by endless growth. To survive, it’s time to embrace radical breakdown.
Merchandizing the Void, Dilettante Army, May 2023. Khloé Kardashian's home pantry, grids, and the American logistical imaginary.
On Baltic Birch, Scope of Work, co-authored with Anna Pendergrast, September 2022. Exploring the plywood with an outsized reputation.
On Stretch Wrap, Scope of Work, co-authored with Anna Pendergrast, May 2022. The diaphanous material that holds together the containerized world.
Performing Automation, e-flux, January 2022. On robots, labor, and the performance of automation.
On Geofoam, Scope of Work, co-authored with Anna Pendergrast, July 2021. On the enormous polystyrene blocks supporting our civil infrastructure.
Cozy Tech, Real Life, June 2021. In product design, textiles replace metals and glass for a softer, gentler intrusion into our intimate space.
Unwanted Corkpull, Real Life, April 2021. It’s hard to live with some objects, and even harder to get rid of them.
Screen Memories, Real Life, January 2021. Screenshots as much as snapshots are the vernacular photography of our lives.
Home Body, Real Life, August 2020. The private home is not an isolated unit, but a living system within a mass of systems, requiring the labor of many.
Looking Down, Real Life,May 2020. The pandemic has divided society into those who have become targets and those who can safely watch.
Who Goes There, Real Life, January 2020. Security questions and CAPTCHA don’t just verify our identities but subtly reshape them.
The Next Big Cheap, Real Life, November 2019. Calling data “the new oil” takes its exploitation for granted.
Ill at Ease. Real Life, May 2019. The app-enabled economy sells a fantasy of frictionlessness at a human cost.