While at WeTransfer, coincidentally during the COVID-19 lockdown, I had the honor of collaborating with an incredibly inspiring, talented and diligent researcher on a groundbreaking project. Despite working from the confines of our homes, we had the miraculous opportunity to interview a vast network of photographers, designers, animators, directors, and producers, and have relatively free-flowing conversations about they way they work on, through and across the connected interweb. Our goal was to map out the intricate network of tools they use to create, manage, and deliver their work across the internet. Our question was whether and if so how these tools mutated and distorted or/as well as clarified and crystallized their creations along the way.
Throughout our research, we encountered many fascinating individuals who spent a significant portion of their time dealing with the peripheral aspects of their work. We uncovered the vast array of tools, processes, protocols, frameworks, and methods that different people design and use to suit their unique workflows. One of the most striking revelations was the dependency on these tools: failing to pay a subscription or leaving a company could result in the loss of access to everything created with those tools.
This realisation was akin to every statue you ever created with a particular chisel vanishing upon losing the chisel itself. This research profoundly informs my core beliefs to this day, driving my mission to shed light on the behind-the-scenes intricacies of the tools we use in our daily lives.
For more information:
Iām writing very badly about my thoughts and findings here
Molly Mielke speaks very eloquently about the political economy of software here
