Demanding media : platform work and the shaping of work and play

Most of us have had the experience of dealing with problems, errors and failures of code in one or more of the vast array of digital devices, applications, online systems, cables, plugs, cards and other media we consume on a daily basis. This ‘platform work’, a concept that builds on Bogost and Montfort’s (2009) definition of a media platform, is a new kind of labour that arises from the highly mediated environments in which we live, work and play. Rather than assessing these errors and failures simply as aberrations, a nuisance and waste of time, this article takes up Parikka and Sampson’s (2009) argument that accidents are expressive of the experience of use. Just as importantly, they shape the spaces and times in which we work, live and play. This paper introduces examples of platform work from a study on professionals’ digital media use and juxtaposes these with corresponding activities performed by game players and artists. Some of the products of this work – the workarounds, glitches and mods - are considered in terms of whether and how these are granted value and in what way this assignment contributes to the construction of the boundaries between work and play. Platform work is experienced differentially by users, with varying levels of access to and ability to mobilise skills and resources – as well as varying opportunities for formal recognition. The paper concludes that media platforms and the work performed on them as much as through them have become key nodes of struggle in a culture and economy premised on knowledge-creation and user-production.