


The friction of installation affects user behavior:
Start small. Today, open your most-used streaming app and download one movie for offline use. Tomorrow, consider ripping your favorite DVD. Next week, set up a home server.
However, this lack of physicality introduces a fragility. To "install" is also to acknowledge the ephemeral nature of digital ownership. We do not own the games on our Steam accounts or the movies on our iTunes libraries in the same way we own a DVD; we possess a license to access them. The "installation" is a lease on a digital experience that can be revoked, patched, or delisted. We are curating a collection that exists at the pleasure of the servers.
The friction of installation affects user behavior:
Start small. Today, open your most-used streaming app and download one movie for offline use. Tomorrow, consider ripping your favorite DVD. Next week, set up a home server.
However, this lack of physicality introduces a fragility. To "install" is also to acknowledge the ephemeral nature of digital ownership. We do not own the games on our Steam accounts or the movies on our iTunes libraries in the same way we own a DVD; we possess a license to access them. The "installation" is a lease on a digital experience that can be revoked, patched, or delisted. We are curating a collection that exists at the pleasure of the servers.
