Google Gift

Student	Lasse van den Bosch Christensen
Graduation Year
Featured image
Work Description	Google Gift is a collection of fictive gifts addressed to Google, and each a response to a gift given by Google in first place. The gifts are suggested by former volunteers who contributed to a Google-owned platform, which eventually was sold and shut down. The gifts manifests an individual volunteer's own particular feelings and attitudes towards Google.
Bio	Lasse van den Bosch Christensen (DK) is a graphic designer living in Rotterdam. On a theoretical and practical level his research engages digital labour, changing modes of production, and the critical aspects of crowd-sourcing. He furthermore freelances as a graphic and webdesigner addressing the border between 'code' and design. He recently established a design studio with Marlon Harder.
URL	http://www.absentarrays.info/googlegift

Google Gift

In 2012 Google sold the 3D modeling software Google SketchUp. This lead to the collapse of a web platform solely driven by a community of volunteer modelers. For six years they had populated the virtual globe - Google Earth - with their creations. Most volunteers continued contributing until the very end. Just before announcing the sale of Google SketchUp, Google sent a gift to its most successful and productive volunteers, whom they addressed as 'top modelers'. The gift contained a 'Thank You'-postcard, a mug, a pencil case, Post-It notes and two stickers. In the aftermath of the platform's abrupt end, I asked several former 'top modelers' to give a gift in return. Each gift on display manifests an individual modeler’s own particular feelings and attitudes towards Google.