Abstract
The work of creators of digital media today is profoundly reliant on the use of specialised software. Yet, software is not merely an instrument of labour. The current hegemonies of society are incorporated in the technological design of tools, explicating what Feenberg (2009) calls technical rationality. Different production frameworks can embed distinct forms of such rationality depending on the goals of their creators. Drawing on theories of knowledge and feminist theory of technological development, Forsler and Velkova present an analysis of the production frameworks of three different manufactures of software tools for computer graphics, both industrial and user-driven. The chapter contributes with a conceptual theoretical model of how these frameworks are underpinned by different epistemological assumptions and competing visions of media practitioners.
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Notes
- 1.
The term media practitioner comes from Donald Schön’s knowledge theory, used in this chapter, and is chosen over related terms such as creator or user to cover a wider range of practices and to emphasise media production as labour. However, we also occasionally employ the term user to note a division of media labour through specialisation.
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Forsler, I., Velkova, J. (2018). Efficient Worker or Reflective Practitioner? Competing Technical Rationalities of Media Software Tools. In: Bilić , P., Primorac, J., Valtýsson, B. (eds) Technologies of Labour and the Politics of Contradiction. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76279-1_6
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