Elan Ullendorff
@elan.place
Algorithmic escape artist | Rolling Stone called me one of the people "quietly keeping the spirit of the human, personal, creative internet alive"
Teaching @UPenn, Product @MarshallProj | 📍Philly
💌 Subscribe: https://escapethealgorithm.substack.com
Teaching @UPenn, Product @MarshallProj | 📍Philly
💌 Subscribe: https://escapethealgorithm.substack.com
Pinned
Elan Ullendorff
@elan.place
· Nov 3
teaching my escape the algorithm course again and it’s such a joy to be able to put such kind testimonials on the flyer 🥺
Reposted by Elan Ullendorff
"It’s hard to imagine getting back to a time [when] discoverability of people’s work and ideas was possible in a way that I don’t think it is anymore... I find more new stuff in actual magazines now... The internet is no longer a way for me to find new stuff, it’s just a place where stuff is."
Anti-viral with Alicia Kennedy
"People just want you to talk about yourself"
escapethealgorithm.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:28 PM
"It’s hard to imagine getting back to a time [when] discoverability of people’s work and ideas was possible in a way that I don’t think it is anymore... I find more new stuff in actual magazines now... The internet is no longer a way for me to find new stuff, it’s just a place where stuff is."
For the first installment, a conversation with the wonderful @aliciadkennedy.bsky.social about…why nobody wants her to have conversations.
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/anti-viral...
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/anti-viral...
Anti-viral with Alicia Kennedy
"People just want you to talk about yourself"
escapethealgorithm.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:00 PM
For the first installment, a conversation with the wonderful @aliciadkennedy.bsky.social about…why nobody wants her to have conversations.
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/anti-viral...
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/anti-viral...
Today I’m excited to launch Anti-viral, a series where I talk to creatives about projects that struggle to find an audience—not to label these projects as failures, but to explore the meaningful, essential work our platforms and economies overlook.
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/anti-viral...
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/anti-viral...
Anti-viral with Alicia Kennedy
"People just want you to talk about yourself"
escapethealgorithm.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Today I’m excited to launch Anti-viral, a series where I talk to creatives about projects that struggle to find an audience—not to label these projects as failures, but to explore the meaningful, essential work our platforms and economies overlook.
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/anti-viral...
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/anti-viral...
Accepting "I loved his brain. I hated the idea of an intruder therein." into the canon of captions that would work on any New Yorker cartoon.
November 17, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Accepting "I loved his brain. I hated the idea of an intruder therein." into the canon of captions that would work on any New Yorker cartoon.
teaching my escape the algorithm course again and it’s such a joy to be able to put such kind testimonials on the flyer 🥺
November 3, 2025 at 5:13 PM
teaching my escape the algorithm course again and it’s such a joy to be able to put such kind testimonials on the flyer 🥺
I’m honored to have my essay The New Turing Test published in the Internet Phone Book, now in its second reprint through @metalabel.bsky.social
Revenue is split between contributors and the Living Web Institute, which has the goal of cultivating a better web
livingweb.metalabel.com/internetphon...
Revenue is split between contributors and the Living Web Institute, which has the goal of cultivating a better web
livingweb.metalabel.com/internetphon...
September 15, 2025 at 4:50 PM
I’m honored to have my essay The New Turing Test published in the Internet Phone Book, now in its second reprint through @metalabel.bsky.social
Revenue is split between contributors and the Living Web Institute, which has the goal of cultivating a better web
livingweb.metalabel.com/internetphon...
Revenue is split between contributors and the Living Web Institute, which has the goal of cultivating a better web
livingweb.metalabel.com/internetphon...
whoever said AI won’t create jobs can eat their hat now
September 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM
whoever said AI won’t create jobs can eat their hat now
Reposted by Elan Ullendorff
Exploring the concept of gifting through experimental design — this is the beauty of the internet when it’s totally free from engagement-maxing algorithms and corporations.
Highly recommend diving into this collection from @spencer.place and @elan.place's Gifting Interfaces class.
Highly recommend diving into this collection from @spencer.place and @elan.place's Gifting Interfaces class.
Gifting Interfaces
A collection of gifts developed by students at the School for Poetic Computation's Gift Interfaces class in Winter 2025.
gifting-interfaces.pages.dev
July 7, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Exploring the concept of gifting through experimental design — this is the beauty of the internet when it’s totally free from engagement-maxing algorithms and corporations.
Highly recommend diving into this collection from @spencer.place and @elan.place's Gifting Interfaces class.
Highly recommend diving into this collection from @spencer.place and @elan.place's Gifting Interfaces class.
It was an honor to talk to Willa Paskin about artisanal white noise for @slate.com’s excellent Decoder Ring podcast
slate.com/podcasts/dec...
slate.com/podcasts/dec...
White Noise Has Become Part of Life’s Soundtrack. But Who’s Behind It?
From crickets to rain to cellphones vibrating, white noise keeps evolving.
slate.com
July 2, 2025 at 6:28 PM
It was an honor to talk to Willa Paskin about artisanal white noise for @slate.com’s excellent Decoder Ring podcast
slate.com/podcasts/dec...
slate.com/podcasts/dec...
In late March, @spencer.place and I wrapped up our Gift Interfaces class at @sfpc-study.bsky.social. On our last day, we threw a gift wrapping party. Then we opened them together. The resulting website represents the archive of our work together:
gifting-interfaces.pages.dev
gifting-interfaces.pages.dev
June 11, 2025 at 2:45 PM
In late March, @spencer.place and I wrapped up our Gift Interfaces class at @sfpc-study.bsky.social. On our last day, we threw a gift wrapping party. Then we opened them together. The resulting website represents the archive of our work together:
gifting-interfaces.pages.dev
gifting-interfaces.pages.dev
Reposted by Elan Ullendorff
🌳 new work
> Over the past couple of years, I’ve been marking the seasons by the inhale and exhale of this tree.
tree.kayserifserif.place/
> Over the past couple of years, I’ve been marking the seasons by the inhale and exhale of this tree.
tree.kayserifserif.place/
In the Year of a Tree
Snapshots throughout the seasons.
tree.kayserifserif.place
April 2, 2025 at 2:02 PM
🌳 new work
> Over the past couple of years, I’ve been marking the seasons by the inhale and exhale of this tree.
tree.kayserifserif.place/
> Over the past couple of years, I’ve been marking the seasons by the inhale and exhale of this tree.
tree.kayserifserif.place/
one day maybe i'll write my snarky hyperbolic essay about how substack is three different pyramid schemes in a trench coat, but in the meantime i'll just point out that this is the most tried and true way to get engagement in the app 🥲
March 27, 2025 at 8:04 PM
one day maybe i'll write my snarky hyperbolic essay about how substack is three different pyramid schemes in a trench coat, but in the meantime i'll just point out that this is the most tried and true way to get engagement in the app 🥲
teasing you with more from our gift interface but sorry you'll have to stay tuned to open them!!
March 27, 2025 at 5:39 PM
teasing you with more from our gift interface but sorry you'll have to stay tuned to open them!!
I talked to @dzkalman.bsky.social about our experiences of Shabbat, and why disconnection remains so elusive despite our societal obsession with it.
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/have-you-t...
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/have-you-t...
Have you tried unplugging and plugging yourself back in again?
A conversation with David Zvi Kalman
escapethealgorithm.substack.com
March 21, 2025 at 3:24 PM
I talked to @dzkalman.bsky.social about our experiences of Shabbat, and why disconnection remains so elusive despite our societal obsession with it.
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/have-you-t...
escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/have-you-t...
there’s nothing more telling than the fact that a platform like grammarly is both a tool for creating slop and for detecting it. like, the buttons are quite literally right next to each other.
you’re participating in an arms race against an industry that is already both sides of the arms race
you’re participating in an arms race against an industry that is already both sides of the arms race
March 11, 2025 at 5:35 PM
there’s nothing more telling than the fact that a platform like grammarly is both a tool for creating slop and for detecting it. like, the buttons are quite literally right next to each other.
you’re participating in an arms race against an industry that is already both sides of the arms race
you’re participating in an arms race against an industry that is already both sides of the arms race
like, if they need to, they’ll tweak their models infinitesimally to reduce the occurrence of em dashes leaving us pointing our fingers at each other.
March 11, 2025 at 5:35 PM
like, if they need to, they’ll tweak their models infinitesimally to reduce the occurrence of em dashes leaving us pointing our fingers at each other.
my take is that if you’re evaluating whether something is AI using methods that are tritely computable — for example, the presence or absence of em dashes — then you are engaging with it on its own terms, rather than human terms, and will lose.
Just saw a post where someone said that use of em dashes (—) was a giveaway that you're using AI for writing. Uh, no. It could just mean you like to use em dashes.
March 11, 2025 at 5:26 PM
my take is that if you’re evaluating whether something is AI using methods that are tritely computable — for example, the presence or absence of em dashes — then you are engaging with it on its own terms, rather than human terms, and will lose.
Every semester I take my Escape the Algorithm students at Penn to the local zine library called The Soapbox to talk about radical publishing and expressive design. While we’re there, the students each pick a zine and recreate it as a website.
March 6, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Every semester I take my Escape the Algorithm students at Penn to the local zine library called The Soapbox to talk about radical publishing and expressive design. While we’re there, the students each pick a zine and recreate it as a website.
A real embarrassment of riches: postcards from Escape the Algorithm readers turned ᵐⁱᶜʳᵒsupporters!! 🥺🥺🥺
March 5, 2025 at 2:54 PM
A real embarrassment of riches: postcards from Escape the Algorithm readers turned ᵐⁱᶜʳᵒsupporters!! 🥺🥺🥺
Reposted by Elan Ullendorff
Gather, the offline-first client for collecting, curating, and cultivating multimedia collections, is officially on the app stores!
Start archiving daily moments like you would text a friend on gather.directory and cultivate your capacity to notice
Start archiving daily moments like you would text a friend on gather.directory and cultivate your capacity to notice
Gather — a local-first collections client
gather.directory
February 27, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Gather, the offline-first client for collecting, curating, and cultivating multimedia collections, is officially on the app stores!
Start archiving daily moments like you would text a friend on gather.directory and cultivate your capacity to notice
Start archiving daily moments like you would text a friend on gather.directory and cultivate your capacity to notice
If you have questions that haven't been answered by this job posting or are wondering how our process works, we'll be hosting our second and final hiring office this Friday, February 28th at 12 PM ET. Registration info at the job link. (Audience members will remain anonymous to each other).
My team @themarshallproject.org is hiring a Designer! You'll work on everything from interactive storytelling to improving our digital products, making complex issues in criminal justice more accessible and impactful.
www.themarshallproject.org/jobs/designer
A bit more about what we're looking for…
www.themarshallproject.org/jobs/designer
A bit more about what we're looking for…
The Marshall Project is Hiring a Designer
The Marshall Project seeks a Designer to join our product team. As a designer at The Marshall Project, you will work with the Director of Product to elevate our award-winning digital journalism throug...
www.themarshallproject.org
February 26, 2025 at 3:54 PM
If you have questions that haven't been answered by this job posting or are wondering how our process works, we'll be hosting our second and final hiring office this Friday, February 28th at 12 PM ET. Registration info at the job link. (Audience members will remain anonymous to each other).
i conducted an experiment with my substack audience and it corroborated this. escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/is-substac...
Is Substack exaggerating its network effects?
The data tells the story writers want to hear... but is it true?
escapethealgorithm.substack.com
February 26, 2025 at 3:40 PM
i conducted an experiment with my substack audience and it corroborated this. escapethealgorithm.substack.com/p/is-substac...