Screens have become our playground where we select, copy, paste, save, export and preview. For us, makers, the creative process has transformed into a series of digital clicks and actions. These actions are temporary. Once executed, they disappear from the screen. Is there a way we can archive, publish and reproduce these actions?
Not only do we create things on screens, we also view things on/through screens. Facebook makes collages for us and in return we tell it how we really feel. Our reward comes in a new form of digital currency: views. Publishing became posting and posts are designed within given frameworks. Instagram pours our images into its square grid, while Facebook previews our photos through fragmentation. Programmed grids determine the way we look at our visual material. Online platforms started to behave like designers; they highlight, crop, cut and frame.
From creating to presenting, we are constantly confronted with fixed formats. These formats carry a certain choreographic force that determines how we create and see content. The designs we make are so much more complex than what is visible when printed. The interfaces of our design programs offer new aesthetics which reveal the nature of a work that is made. A work that is de-signed.
