Position

We are artists, designers, researchers, and scholars. Our practices intersect studio, industry, and academic domains. Our age-bracket places us in a population that first encountered computers, software, internet, and the web as each of these technologies were born, made accessible, and integrated into daily life. In 2018 we were visiting researchers in residence at the Media Archeology Lab (MAL) at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Our approach was exploratory-discovery-mode + open-mind. Our experience of the Media Archeology Lab (MAL) and its hands-on collection of working classic computers, command-lines, operating systems, and software, along with the missing internet connectvity, was familiar, inspiring, and deeply sensational.

About Us

Jess Parris Westbrook (they/them) holds queer and feminist worldviews and studies forces at play in social landscapes, educational environments, and learning scenarios. Westbrook's philosophy is rooted in interdisciplinarity, immersion, inquiry and experimentation, critical technical practice, information experience, project-based learning, and the disregard of power. contact: everybody[at]onchanneltwo[dotcom]

Why Photoshop

Adobe® Photoshop has a dominating presence across "creative" industries and "creative" lives. Its interface is a standard. Its specific constraints and permissions impact millions and millions of "creative" decisions and outcomes. At the Media Archeology Lab (MAL) we installed and navigated Adobe® Photoshop versions 1-6 and reflected on both the UI/UX and creative software capabilities over time as well as our very real human-software-relationship with each and every upgrade released since 1990.

From an HCI/UI/UX perspective it may be that Adobe® Photoshop is a perfectly tuned incremental instrument/tool for both its user tasks and its underlying corporate interests. From a creativity perspective Adobe® Photoshop, the brand, its ubiquity, and its pervasive influence, appeals to and reinforces the consensual definition of creativity. Creative means expressive, and creativity means product.

For us this research pathway is just beginning. Tracing the software-capabilities of Adobe® Photoshop was an excellent way to reflect on established norms and corporate influences embedded in technology. There is an obvious appeal to investigating Adobe® intelligence the crash-log collections repurposed, the invasive monitoring performed through cloud computing, machine-learning practices enabled through crowd-sourcing, and the very real potential to eliminate the human from Adobe® Photoshop's particular (limited and/or strategic) understanding of creative and creativity. We are moving past these currents and are doing studies that investigate human-human-relationships and something more hopeful in the future of human-software-relationships.

1990: Photoshop 1

Another software thread includes the evolution of Display, ImagePro (name was dropped due to conflicts), Barneyscan XP (bundled with a film scanner), then finally Photoshop, licensed and distributed by Adobe.

1991: Photoshop 2

Increased capabilities: clone tool, pen tool, paths, masking, color balance, hue, saturation, curves, levels, 16-bit channels, CMYK color mode, filters menu, 2.5 includes palettes

1994: Photoshop 3

Increased capabilities: layers, blend modes, tabbed palettes

1996: Photoshop 4

Increased capabilities: free transform tool, gradients, more filters, adjustment layers, actions (macros/automation), grids/guides, navigator palette, and complete unification of the UI across all Adobe products

1998: Photoshop 5

Increased capabilities: measure tool, magnetic lasso, editable type (previously, type was rasterized as soon as it was created), adjustment layer effects, color management, plugins, history palette (multiple undo), 5.5 bundled with "save for Web" and ImageReady with web-oriented functionality (slices, rollovers, etc), and new extract filter

2000: Photoshop 6

Increased capabilities: vector shapes, layer styles, dialog box added (new file options), UI significantly updated.

2002: Photoshop 7

Increased capabilities: healing brush, patch tool, custom brushes, camera raw, vector text, spell check and find/replace, file browser

2003-2012: Photoshop CS (Creative Suite) series

The 2003-2012 Creative Suite series includes Photoshop 8 or CS released in 2003, Photoshop 9 or CS2 released in 2005, Photoshop 10 or CS3 released in 2007, Photoshop 11 or CS4 released in 2008, Photoshop 12 or CS5 released in 2010, and Photoshop 13 or CS6 released in 2012.

In 2003 Photoshop increased its capabilities with an array of better user controls (filter, layer management, and file browsing), scripting support for JavaScript, embeded security features like the Counterfeit Deterrence System (CDS), as well as a type on path tool, better slice tool, match color, smart guides, real-time histogram, and large file handling. In 2005 Photoshop increased its capabilites with non-destructive editing, (HDRI) support, spot healing, increased layer functionality, as well as smart objects, red-eye and lens correction, and a vanishing point tool. In 2007 Photoshop increased its capabilites with quick select, auto align/blend, smart (non-destructive) filters, mobile device graphic optimization, full integration of ImageReady, and many UI and tool revisions and improvements to optimize speed, productivity, and performance. In 2008 Photoshop increased its capabilites with content awareness (scaling, cropping), colour-blindness support, 3D functionality and rendering, simplified tab-based interface, and many UI and tool revisions. In 2010 Photoshop increased its capabilites with more content awareness features, intelligent selection technology, improved HDR and raw processing, more 3D options, new tools and better workspace managment, 30 JDI (Just Do it) additions, video editing, and interacts with remote applications over TCP/IP, such as tablets and other computers. Users of Adobe Creative Suite 3 began noticing that the software was being monitored by a web analytics company without consent. This release also included the first subscription license (optional). In 2012 Photoshop increased its capabilites with more content awareness features, skin tone and face-detection, background saving (auto-save), more image-editing functionality like the blur gallery, video editing tools, and a complete UI redesign (all new icons and optional dark UI). CS6 was the last suite marketed with licenses supporting Creative Cloud subscriptions.

2015-2019: Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud) series

The 2015-2019 Creative Cloud series includes Photoshop 14 or Creative Cloud released in 2013, Photoshop 15 or CC 2014 released in 2014, Photoshop 16/17 or CC 2015 released in 2015, Photoshop 18 or CC 2017 released in 2016, Photoshop 19 or CC 2018 released in 2017, Photoshop 20 or CC 2019 released in 2018, and Photoshop 21 or Photoshop 2020 released in 2019. Within these releases Photoshop has increased its capabilities with: intelligent unsampling, smarter sharpening, real-time healing, smarter objects, more content-awaren features and functionality, camera corrections, a compositing engine, task speed and performance increases; cloud sync preferences, publishing integration, in-app purchases, stock services, 3D object handling and options, typography/type integration; better project management with template selection, artboards, previews, smarter smart guides, and increased library and link capabilities, and an ongoing number of security fixes, all within a subscription-based pricing model.