In the SOFTER origin story, the computer plays a very central role. Nicole and I connected over sharing the frustrations of trying to build our own render computer (maybe you’ve been to our events and you have heard the story a 1000 times, in that case, just skip to the next headline).
The SOFTER origin story
Nicole and I both studied visual communication in a design school in Copenhagen, but for no particular reason, we weren't really friends. Without each other's knowledge, we were both dreaming of journeying into the more digital and technological aspects of design and art — and both struggling with it — without, at the time, really being able to understand why.
After graduation, we both reached the conclusion that we needed to build a pc workstation to properly venture into learning 3D software. Nicole had no idea where to start, but had heard from a common friend that I had somehow magically built my own computer and she reached out to me (the truth was that I also had no idea, and one of my male friends helped me through the whole process). We met up and started talking about how it felt so difficult to get into 3D software, building computers etc, trying to understand why it felt so intimidating and unapproachable to us.
Being recent design graduates, it came very natural to us to start (over)analysing the visual universe surrounding digital design and technology, realising that the mainstream aesthetics linked to everything technology, from hardware to software, are extremely stereotypically masculine and hard. Hardware designed to look unnecessarily complicated with evil-sounding names like “predator”, intimidating interfaces making you think “maybe-I’m-just-not-a-technical-person” and the visual branding is all fire, smoke and engines taking off.
We soon realised that this observation did not only connect to the visuals, but the pedagogies too. When trying to learn 3D software or coding with youtube tutorials, we met the same hypermasculine tendencies — instructors speaking way too fast or using complicated terminology, making it sound more difficult than it should, sometimes even talking down to you and if you’re really lucky, when you least expect it, they’ll sneak in a sexist comment.
Suddenly it wasn’t a mystery to us anymore why we felt uninvited and why having to build a computer felt like the HARDEST thing to do, but we knew we wouldn’t just accept it. Long story short, we decided to create SOFTER as an alternative to not only the aesthetics and the pedagogies of the digital world but also the directions of where tech is going.
How building a computer can boost your tech-confidence
Since the beginning of SOFTER, the computer has become the symbol of both our tech frustration and our tech success, and we found that, for several reasons, understanding how to build a computer can help replacing hardware intimidation with hardware curiosity.
- Demystification of computers
Many of us are so used to computers being something that operates beyond our understanding, like a sort of mechanical magic. Even though it may seem that way, computers are not mysterious black boxes. Learning about computer components and how they work together to process data and perform tasks while keeping it cool (I mean temperature cool) can make it all feel less abstract.
- The physical interaction
The tactile and visual experience of actually handling the hardware yourself, putting the components together, hearing the little clicks when a part is attached and seeing the LED’s light up when something works (or doesn’t work) is very satisfying. I’ve experienced many people (including myself) being surprised that you CAN actually just build a computer and that it doesn’t include any soldering (we are luckily NOT building the computer components from scratch here, no need to melt any metal).
- Practicing problem-solving
There is ALWAYS something that doesn’t work and most times you can get an indication of what it is through little LED lights on the motherboard or error codes on the screen, and then it’s time to go into detective mode. Every time a new thing goes wrong, you learn something new and every time you resolve an issue it gives you a little more tech confidence.
- Linking hardware and software
When learning about computer components and what they do, you also gain an understanding of how hardware and software work together, which is very helpful if you, like most creatives, work with software every single day. It gets easier to troubleshoot and solve problems, when you know how the computer carries out your instructions (in the software) that are then interpreted and executed by the machine (in the hardware).
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If you are curious about knowing what a computer is made of, if you are dreaming about building your own computer one day or if you just find hardware mysterious, scary but still intriguing, stay tuned for more computer knowledge and geekery coming soon.
xoxo Ida