{"product_id":"frictionlessness-by-jakko-kemper-9798765104422","title":"Frictionlessness","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFrictionlessness\u003c\/em\u003e provides an examination of the environmentally destructive digital design philosophy of \"frictionlessness\" and the critical significance of a technological aesthetic of imperfection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf there is one thing that defines digital consumer technologies today, it is that they are designed to feel frictionless. From smart technologies to cloud computing, from one-click shopping to the promise of seamless streaming—digital technology is framed to host ever-faster operations while receding increasingly into the background of perception.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe environmental costs of this fetishization of frictionlessness are enormous and unevenly distributed; the frictionless experience of the end user tends to be supported by opaque networks of exploited labour and extracted resources that disproportionately impact the Global South. This situation marks an urgent need for alternate, less destructive aesthetic relations to technology. As such, this book examines imperfection, as an aesthetic concept that highlights existential conditions of finitude and fragility, as a particularly powerful counterweight to the dominant digital design philosophy of frictionlessness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhile frictionlessness aims to draw the user’s perception away from the exploitative and destructive conditions of digital production, imperfection forms an aesthetic source of friction that alerts users to the fragile nature of technology and the finite resources on which it relies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese arguments are elaborated through a close reading of three technological objects—a video game that was programmed to expire, an audiovisual performance that laments the fate of disused technology, and a collection of music albums that dramatise a techno-cultural logic of relentless consumerism. Together, these case studies underline the value of technological aesthetics of imperfection and point to the need for a renewed ethics of care in relation to technology.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48242220237036,"sku":"9798765104422","price":49.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9798765104422-frictionlessness-1.jpg?v=1787967212","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/products\/frictionlessness-by-jakko-kemper-9798765104422","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}