ABSTRACT
In introducing this collection, we argue for the idea that digital convergence—the practice of converting various sensory streams (film, music, text) into digital bits—contributes to misunderstandings of digital labor as immaterial. Instead, Pilsch and Ross argue that Susan Leigh Star and Anselm Strauss’ concept of invisible labor, the work that coordinates and often facilitates the functioning of complex systems, is a more accurate term for the work done to maintain and expand digital culture. However, given the often celebratory rhetoric of computation as immateriality, tracing and recovering this invisible labor is more important than ever. Thankfully, the textual record of digital culture is old enough and rich enough that we can now offer a fuller account of the material labor practices of humans at work in the digital economy. Chapter summaries at the end of this introduction contextualize each individual contribution in light of this thesis.
