User:Colm/Thesis/2016 12 07 Thesis-outline0.2.1

Title: Thesis outline 0.2.1 Date: 07/12/2016

Thesis outline

standing outline for Thesis Graduate Seminar deadline 2016_11_09 after 10am meeting with Marloes.

Central research question: How do static visual production software technologies transfer the knowledge and skills of the craft they virtualise?

Technology is typically seen as a problem-solver, and well-designed technology is supposed to follow an according aesthetic of efficiency, ease and—ultimately—automation.

To Save Everything, Click Here — Evgeny Morozov, ch 9

Introduction:

• Central research question
• Why is it important for static visual production software to transfer knowledge?
• What is visual production software
• There is no visual production software that does not mimic a physical tangible action, something I believe to be a craft.
• Physical tangible actions are what visual production software virtualises.
• run through all the subquestions from following chapters

Chapter 1:

Temp title: Defining craft

What is modern digital craft? Is it the same as old crafts with different tools and different outcomes? Is it still cultural production?

• key words in answers: tangible material, virtual material, manipulation techniques, expertise, experts, professionnals, tools, manual tools, virtual tools, progression of craft

Chapter 2:

Temp title: Efficacy or efficiency

Efficacy is the power or capacity to produce a desired effect; effectiveness.

Efficiency is the ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result.

What leads Morozov to state that a well-designed technology is one that is efficient and easy? What is the criterium for well-designed visual production software? Is that criterium in line with the established understanding of digital craft? Is there a larger misunderstanding in software between efficiency and efficacy?

Chapter 3:

Temp title: The user, the learning curve http://contemporary-home-computing.org/art-and-tech/not/

Is the visual production software user automatically a craftsman? Do all users mean to attain craft, or is the software designed for a broader set of users? From the perspective of the software vendor, who is included in the user group, who is left out?

Relate back to central research question by pointing out cold modes of address as an outcome of confusing efficiency and efficacy.

the doer, the producer, the craftsman, the professional, specialisations, comforts

Conclusion:

While efficacy enables larger sets of users to autistically produce visuals digitally, what happens when the software is declined to function on other types of interfaces and devices? Firstly tablets and phones, but also web apps.

The cold executive tone that results from the focus on efficacy leads to some areas of visual software culture to be extremely bland and misunderstood. What will be the results of this culture's workspace being moved to web-apps and cloud computing? There will then be no way of working on custom material or sources without uploading them first, there will be only technical possiblities allowed when working within what the latest version of the browser that the vendor prefers allows, there will only be work possible when subscriptions are payed and the rest of the chaos of the internet can happen in the workspace too. Is this still an appropriate vision of craft (or is this now plain labor)?

What if software interfaces were to become more generous, were to focus more on being generous with information instead of cleaning up workflows for efficiency?

in every user interface study we’ve ever done […], [we found] it’s pretty easy to learn how to use these things ‘til you hit the file system and then the learning curve goes vertical. So you ask yourself, why is the file system the face of the OS? Wouldn’t it be better if there was a better way to find stuff?

Now, e-mail, there’s always been a better way to find stuff. You don’t keep your e-mail on your file system, right? The app manages it. And that was the breakthrough, as an example, in iTunes. You don’t keep your music in the file system, that would be crazy. You keep it in this app that knows about music and knows how to find things in lots of different ways. Same with photos: we’ve got an app that knows all about photos. And these apps manage their own file storage. […]

[...] And eventually, the file system management is just gonna be an app for pros and consumers aren’t gonna need to use it.

Steve Jobs on the file system; video transcription from here

coming full circle, Apple Pencil, Adobe rulers, even the place where the computer tool runs becomes blurry. The cloud. Solutions to file handeling. -->

My intention is to provide context to better understand certain contemporary movement in digital services that seem to focus on efficiency. This risks the further diminishing the cultural relevance and importance of digital practices and crafts, and in the case of the most recent implementations in alternate interfaces and web apps: blurring the lines between service and production.

Key texts

• to save everything click here — Evgeny Morozov
  
• La société automatique: Tome 1, L'avenir du travail — Bernard Stiegler
• Adverserial Design - Carl DiSalvo
  
• Chantal Mouffe
  
• Terry Winograd & Fernando Flores — Understanding Computers and Cognition