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Contribution short abstract

The We:Design project explored digital inequalities in job market access among Viennese youth and co-created an open-source app for job applications. The exhibition thematises the imperfections, the detours and the afterlife of a project out of funding, in an environment that focuses on novelty.

Contribution long abstract

The We:Design project (2022–2023) was a collaboration between anthropology and computer science, based on previous ethnographic fieldwork. It pursued two main goals: a) to explore digital inequalities in labour market access among Viennese youth and b) to co-create a low-threshold, open-source smartphone app for writing job applications. The project partnered with two Viennese institutions: a school and a government-funded program supporting young people transitioning from school to work or apprenticeships.

Central to the project was embracing collaboration, but also detours, subversive practices and non-participation. The multi-modal, multi-paced approach emphasized diverse preferences and abilities. We aimed to demystify academic processes, invite participants into university spaces, and reveal the behind-the-scenes workings. The outcomes intentionally extended beyond a functioning app or academic outputs, highlighting the detours and imperfections that end products often exclude. The closing ceremony exemplified this by exhibiting interactive stations instead of a presentation and emphasizing open-endedness over polished conclusions.

Despite the lack of further funding, the project lives on through further events and interventions. It is constantly changing through its afterlife – also in the curatorial space of “Out of Focus”. Here, the main question raised is can we transform not only artifacts such as an app into commons, but also the “by-products” that lie in between. This is particularly relevant in a (third party) funding context that emphasizes constant (inevitably short-lived) innovation and novelty, thus encouraging the discarding of “old” projects and materials.