Media Technologies in the Making User-Driven Software and Infrastructures for Computer Graphics Production Julia Velkova SÖDERTÖRN DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS Media Technologies in the Making user-driven software and infrastructures for computer graphics production Julia Velkova Subject: Media and Communication Studies Research Area: Critical and Cultural Theory School: Culture and Education and the Baltic and East European Graduate School (BEEGS), Södertörn University. Södertörns högskola (Södertörn University) The Library SE-141 89 Huddinge www.sh.se/publications © Julia Velkova Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Part 1 of this compilation thesis, excluding images, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. The individual papers, images in Part 1, and all figures are subject to their own licensing. Cover image: Nikolai Mamashev (the image in the first film frame on the cover is David Revoy’s concept art for Cosmos Laundromat. The image in the second frame on the cover is concept art from Morevna project) Cover layout: Jonathan Robson Graphic form: Per Lindblom & Jonathan Robson Printed by Elanders, Stockholm 2017 Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 146 ISSN 1652–7399 ISBN 978-91-88663-19-1 (print) ISBN 978-91-88663-20-7 (digital) Abstract Over the past few decades there have emerged greater possibilities for users and consumers of media to create or engage in the creation of digital media technologies. This PhD dissertation explores the ways in which the broadening of possibilities for making technologies, specifically software, has been taken advantage of by new producers of digital culture – freelan- cers, aspiring digital media creators and small studios – in the production of digital visual media. It is based on two empirical case studies that concern the making of free software for computer graphics animation production in two contexts: by a loose collective of anime fans in Siberia, Russia, and by a small animation studio in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The case studies are presented and analysed in the scope of four journal articles and one book chapter which form the core of the dissertation. The dissertation draws on a media practice perspective and an under- standing of software as an artefact that concentrates and mediates specific infrastructural arrangements that entangle politics of technological produc- tion, economic interests and practice-related concerns. The analytical focus of the research problematises in particular practices of software decom- modification and its further repair and development by non-programmers; the anchoring of software development and repair in actual production practices of computer graphics animations; and a commitment to sharing software, animations and other artefacts online as commons. The thesis combines several concepts from anthropology and science and technology studies to theorise these practices: – politics and regimes of value (Appadurai, 1986); repair and artful integrations (Jackson, 2014; Suchman, 2000); gifting (Baudrillard, 1981; Mauss, 1925/2002) and autonomy (cf Bourdieu, 1993). Bringing together these concepts, the dissertation regards them as constitutive and indicative of what I refer to as ‘media-related infra- structuring practices’, or practices in which non-programmers generate infrastructures through creating and mediating arrangements around tech- nical artefacts like software. The results of the dissertation indicate how making free software for computer graphics media is entangled in diverse conditions of technological unevenness that may enable, but also limit, the possibilities of aspiring media creators to improve their status or work positions in the broader field of digital media production. By attending to these conditions and to prac- tices that attempt to alter them, we can better understand the spectrum of problems and politics related to contemporary software that underpins much of digital visual media today, and the formation of new user-driven infrastructures for media production that try to resolve them. Keywords: Blender, commons, computer animation, computer graphics, Cosmos Laundromat, decommodification, gifting, infrastructuring, media practice, Morevna project, repair, Synfig, user-driven software. Acknowledgments …we are never through, but occasionally we stop to tell our colleagues what we have learnt. (Howard Becker, 1982/2008: xxi) In 2006, I embarked on a short but major personal challenge. It was about walking 600 km on the ridge of the Balkan mountains in 20 days, crossing Bulgaria, the country where I grew up. The hike, which was an exercise in both mental and physical endurance, was led by two experienced guides, who kept the group motivated during the ups and downs that accompanied each of the 8–12-hour-long hiking days. The successful end of this hike taught me that the borders of one’s endurance can always stretch a little bit more with the help of others, that persistence and small but frequent breaks are needed to cover a long distance and that comfort can be sacrificed in the name of other rewarding experiences that open up other horizons. The journey through the five years of this PhD work has been a greater challenge but also shared some similarities with that hike. The horizons that this PhD explored would have remained hidden for me without the exciting and ambitious projects of the Blender community, the Blender Institute and the anime animation community in Gorno-Altaysk. I am particularly grate- ful to Ton Roosendaal, Konstantin Dmitriev, the Blender artist and developer community and the Cosmos Laundromat team, the Morevna pro- ject participants and Synfig artists, Boud Rempt from Krita, David Revoy, the Libre Graphics community, Jason van Gumster from OpenSource.com and Sybren Stüvel for sharing their worlds and passions for computer graphics with me, for supporting and criticising my research, as well as for their hospitality. I am immensely grateful to Patrik Åker, my primary supervisor, for con- tinuous guidance, patience, endless conversations, constant encouragement and interest in this project and in my capacity to complete it even at times when I had lost faith in it. I am particularly thankful for his insistence on the value and importance of striving to have a historical perspective (some- thing that I am still working my way through), for keeping me on track and for always being there when needed. I am also deeply grateful to Göran Bolin, my second supervisor, for always making any difficult task feel easy and exciting. His deeply engaged and optimistic attitude to academic work, teaching and research have been, and remain, truly inspirational. Further, I am thankful to Kjetil Sandvik and Bo Reimer, who were opponents and commented upon my work during the mid-term and final seminars, respectively. Their questions and engaged reading further shaped this dissertation and were especially important for the final shape and form it took. All mistakes, omissions and decisions to not engage with some of the comments that I received remain, of course, my sole responsibility. I feel very fortunate to have been able to work on this dissertation at the Department of Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University. The friendly and encouraging atmosphere there, together with the richness of perspectives, breadth of competence and willingness of many colleagues to comment on my work in progress have been stimulating and provided me with an example of how a supportive research environment should look. Stina Bengtsson and Sofia Johansson have been particularly helpful with sharing knowledge and experience on how to reconcile the two equally demanding worlds of doing a PhD and being a committed parent. Ewa Rogström has always taken excellent care of all administrative paperwork, in addition to being a friendly and attentive colleague. This work would have not been possible without the generous financial support provided by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, which funded my PhD education. In addition, the Swedish Institute pro- vided me with funding to complete my fieldwork in Gorno-Altaysk, Russia. The Institution for Culture and Education and the Media and Commu- nication Studies Department at Södertörn University provided me with additional financial support to attend conferences, workshops and summer schools where I presented drafts of the papers that make up part of this dissertation and where I was able to connect to a broader academic com- munity engaged in media and communications research. The publiccation committee at Södertörn University has been helpful with funding the proofreading of some of the articles. Much of the theoretical discussion that penetrates the articles emerged at various encounters with passionate and deeply engaged researchers at venues beyond Södertörn University. Some of these venues included the AOIR conferences in Daegu, Phoenix and Berlin; the Hackademia event in Lüneburg in 2016; the Dubrovnik research school on Digital Work in 2016; the ECREA Doctoral Summer School 2015; the Communication and Democracy ECREA section conference in Copenhagen in 2015 and the Brestolon research network. I cannot thank Kylie Jarrett enough for her deep engagement, support and promotion of my work at unexpected venues and moments since we met in 2014, for long formal and informal conversations and for making me believe in the value of standing for a dif- ferent perspective. Paško Bilić and Brian Beaton further opened up a breadth of perspectives in front of