Document:Q11979

Mimicking the form of a graphics pack that users can download in a number of online marketplaces (or rip from black market torrent sites and filesharing communities), Altmann offers up a range of world class effects and elements from her own projects that can be used and repurposed to add extra value to yours. While operating as a collection of "useful" files that give away some branding elements of her work and invite bootlegging, this directory also serves as commentary on the tropes, back-end labor, and values of audiovisual production, which in many ways mirror other class, culture, and market systems. From raw materials and tribal decoration to fantasy textures and synthetic luxury facades, the collection reveals a lens on the promotional imaging economy, where many stock elements are produced by anonymous users who have often learned and shared the trade via online communities, and are able to earn outsourced profits by replicating what the market demands. At the same time it is an exercise in context, as each element's conceptual value in Altmann's system of works and topics has the possibility to be amplified or completely removed by a new producer.