Every editing software contains its own intrinsic presets, templates, and automated processes. These functions embed a default aesthetic that predetermine how images look, move, and behave while platforms shape their visibility through algorithmic circulation.

Online, the boundaries between authorship and infrastructure blur as cultural production emerges at the interplay between hardware and software, social networks, and internet personas. What appears as an individual act of creation increasingly unfolds within systems that structure how media is produced and distributed.

In this three-week workshop, we will take these conditions as our main subject and ask what happens when we start to think beyond them.

Participants will work within their preferred software, breaking down their own conventions and workflows throughout the course.

Each week will consist of discussion, tech demos, and guided prompts and exercises that target specific tools and functions. Optional screenings will run alongside the sessions, where we will watch and discuss work that models post-default thinking in practice. We will also build toward a final project, where we will piece together a collective edit.

The workshop and screenings will take place on the perfectkissblackout.net discord server.

Anyone who is curious about editing as a critical practice is welcome to join, though some experience with editing would be helpful.

Registration is open now and space is limited. Participants must have or create a discord account to enroll.