Solo-Devs and Risk-Takers (An Artistic Exploration of Experimental Tools)
Interesting observation is that “solo-dev” seems to be the new indie.
...In this case, I think it’s great when things get brought back to the basics… Work by just one person counts as something. It brings value to the table in ways that work by large teams never will because it’s the unique voice, perspective, and intention of just one person that you are experiencing when you are playing their game. Experimentation can thrive here.
...It is particularly interesting when you look at the tool space. Tools outside of the mainstream, made by just one person, a group of friends, or a small team… all asking “what if”, and then exploring how their tool can empower creation in an idealistically creative way.
I create out of my own perspectives
I was talking with someone not too long ago and they described how they had sent something of mine to a friend who immediately brushed it off because it wasn’t in accordance with usability standards (too colorful and weird). This got me thinking about that topic again…
It happens a lot with my work, and I think it captures a really interesting dynamic when we talk about how usability has become a moral high ground issue.
I often get told that I’m ableist because my work is too colorful, with too much animation, too much happening… and it’s not “toned down” to be usable for the widest range of people.
It’s usually arguments about disability from people who are not disabled themselves. This I think is interesting because I create out of my own perspectives often informed by my own disabilities, my own life experiences, and the things important to me… all the things that make me who I am.
See ⮂ Also
⭐⭐ Kinopio Pirijan Keth (An application)
⭐ From monopolies to tiny tools by solo devs Nathalie Lawhead This sort of thing [parody software] functions as turning your actual desktop into a playground or space for a game.
I think that’s a fascinating tangent to explore with software. It can be a conduit to a fantasy reality, blurring the line between where the fiction starts and the software stops...I think it goes to show that people love looking at computers in a different light, one that breaks free from the mainstream ideals.
...There’s a novelty to re-discovering that software can be something else. It does not have to serve a purpose like photoshop, or how a video game serves a purpose, it can just exist to make your digital space weird. They are digital toys.
There is a power to that: when developers reject the idea that everything made needs to be part of a monetary feedback loop, and can just make things that break that established pattern of use, monetization, productivity, corporate branding that exists in every part of the desktop…
Being part of a long history like this, software is meant to be weird. Computers are silly. Hobbyists are at the heart of this.
Field Companions Spencer Chang Field Companions are everyday objects that have been modified to hold memory in order to share the perspective of our environments.
From stones to sea glass to broken off asphalt, each Companion can be found every day you move through the world and has been given a 1-minute audio recording at the place in the minute it was found.
An experiment in giving inanimate objects and environmental features human agency. What stories could your environment tell if you listened? What place do you want to remember?