Louise O'Connor

I wrote a bit of an overview of how we animate our Citadel band ("The Wingnuts") using 'silent MIDI' tracks, as well as some of the reasoning behind having them in Badlands Crew. Read more, and see them in action here: https://lnkd.in/eSKcXspE

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13 years ago I had a failing music studio, debt, high stress levels. 12 years ago I started Bigmouth Audio, focussed on B2B, offered multiple audio services (to see what would stick). 10 years ago I landed my first sound design project, started to laser focus on sound design for animation, started attending industry events relevant to my niche, started going to the gym. 9 years ago we landed our first BIG project, this changed my mindset, asked this client how we could better support them in achieving their goals going forward, started to focus more on voice casting & production. 8 years ago I found out I was going to be a dad, stopped working IN the business, focussed my time working ON the business, read Profit First to tackle more of the debt. 6 years ago pivoted the business to service games as well as animation, moved into a bigger studio, landed our first MAJOR project, this changed my mindset again. 5 years ago I hired project management staff, signed Netflix as a client, signed our first games client. 4 years ago we invested in building a state of the art audio facility in Glasgow, took over the rest of our building for office space, launched our business in Toronto, started doing sauna therapy. 3 years ago saw the end of the busiest spell we have ever had, entered one of the most challenging spells our industry has seen, blew through our cash reserves. only recently we have started to land decent projects again, saw a slight improvement in the market, started to focus on building our / my brand, decided to invest in the basics (finance & strategy). Now I have: - Experience & battle scars - A great team - Great clients - Resilience and better mental health - No debt - A profitable business All things I didn't have 12 years ago. Turning things around takes time. Often a lot of time! It's also never going to be a smooth ride. But it's guaranteed to be one hell of a journey.

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Hopefully this is the first time you're seeing modular control rig working inside #uefn. I saw the hidden menu for making modular control rigs during #unrealfest and tried migrating all the modules over. Not without its kinks, we now have working modular control rigs and modules on the otherside. If people are interested in this process, I'll consider making a longer form tutorial. In the meantime, what should we rig up with the modules in UEFN?

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Lots of interesting info in this survey for people in the industry at every level. How does your pay compare? Which areas are struggling/thriving? Do take a look, there's some useful insights in there :)

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More terrible news today with Payload Studios announcing that they had to make reductions in staff due to the economic climate. You can find the full detail, as well as references for those affected, here: https://lnkd.in/eyKhTqEZ Those of you who are affected by this, please make use of my resources below: 🥇First, reach out to us at People Can Fly Studio, we have many roles open right now in Canada, the UK, Ireland and Europe, please check them out here: https://lnkd.in/eWpV5PbA 🥈Next, Discipline Games Jobs Resources: Over the past months I have created 9 (at time of writing) Games Jobs Resources to find jobs in a wide range of disciplines, and I would urge you to check them out, if anything just to see what would be available to you: https://lnkd.in/e2qSeKk6 You can find over 5,600 jobs there. 🥉 Third, the Ultimate list of Video Games Career Resources: This should be your one-stop shop for all information. My dear friend Amir Satvat maintains these documents, he is a legend for doing this - please check them out: https://amirsatvat.com/ I urge you to check out the areas in particular about CV support and mentoring, as these will help you no matter what industry you are hailing from or are looking into going next. 🎖 Finally, do not give up. Ever. No matter how dark things may look right now, I KNOW you will get through this, you have got this! 👊 Remember you are not alone. If you need help, advice, or even an ear to listen, we're here for you. Always! ➡ A request to my community, please can I ask you to repost this post to your colleagues and friends, so that we can get as many into jobs as possible! And please comment if you or your studio are currently hiring - let's help each other! Much love ❤️ #payloadstudios #layoffs

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Two weeks ago, I attended Interactive Futures, a computer games outreach event held in Leamington Spa, UK. It changed the way I use AI in my workflow. Despite spending over 20 years in the industry, five of them locally, this was my first time at the event. I’m glad I went and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were several highlights worth mentioning: * A great introduction to the vibrant games community around Leamington Spa and the West Midlands. * Opportunities for real, practical conversations with games industry professionals. * Engaging panel talks on industry hot topics. Of these, the panel talks stayed with me the most. I was particularly interested in the discussions on the future of games, especially the role that AI will play (many thanks to Clare Green, Laura Steel, 🕹️Csaba Berenyi, James Norris, Hernan Polloni) Over the years, I’ve attended many talks on AI and have a reasonable understanding of the subject. However, one comment seemed to challenge me directly: how much have I integrated AI into my workflow? The truth was, I hadn't—at least not to the extent I could. I knew of tools, the usual suspects, but they weren’t genuinely part of my workflow habits. Not as much as they might be. Since then, I've started to recognise and integrate the practical power of current generative AI tools, which feels like the sweet spot for my personal use. I’m now incorporating AI more into my daily routine—as a sounding board, a visualiser, a time-saver, and a productivity booster. This shift has led me to rethink how I view AI right now, even if my grander hopes for the possibilities remain. Initially, I saw AI as a grand intellectual game-changer, something that would mark a paradigm shift in how we perform jobs, but essentially unfinished and kept at arm's length. It might still be that huge leap in the future, but for now, for me, it’s more of a practical tool that I can weave into my approach rather than something that completely transforms the game. From a workflow perspective, it’s less like moving from two-dimensional to three-dimensional chess, and more like the introduction of metal rackets in tennis, DRS in Formula One, or VAR in football. The game remains fundamentally the same but, to play it well, you need to understand the changes, even if they aren’t immediately apparent on the surface. Because before the huge change, as is common, there will be a number of incremental changes for those who are looking. My goal now is to ensure I’m really looking. If you are interested in further insights into AI’s impact on tools, as well as the possibilities in the future, I'll include some links in the comments.

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Awful news overnight with Ancient Forge having had to lay off 24 of its 59 employees at the end of August, according to Polish outlet CD-Action. The cuts reportedly affected both new hires and experienced devs, including leads and producers. This comes amid financial struggles reported at the studio in July. (source: https://lnkd.in/eywVcGt8) Those of you who are affected by this, please make use of my resources below: 🥇First, reach out to us at People Can Fly Studio, we have many roles open right now in Canada, the UK, Ireland and Europe, please check them out here: https://lnkd.in/eWpV5PbA 🥈Next, Discipline Games Jobs Resources: Over the past months I have created 9 (at time of writing) Games Jobs Resources to find jobs in a wide range of disciplines, and I would urge you to check them out, if anything just to see what would be available to you: https://lnkd.in/ePywd2kq You can find over 6,000 jobs there. 🥉 Third, the Ultimate list of Video Games Career Resources: This should be your one-stop shop for all information. My dear friend Amir Satvat maintains these documents, he is a legend for doing this - please check them out: https://amirsatvat.com/ I urge you to check out the areas in particular about CV support and mentoring, as these will help you no matter what industry you are hailing from or are looking into going next. 🎖 Finally, do not give up. Ever. No matter how dark things may look right now, I KNOW you will get through this, you have got this! 👊 Remember you are not alone. If you need help, advice, or even an ear to listen, we're here for you. Always! ➡ A request to my community, please can I ask you to repost this post to your colleagues and friends, so that we can get as many into jobs as possible! And please comment if you or your studio are currently hiring - let's help each other! Much love ❤️ #ancientforge #layoffs

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Oh wow, you do not hear that often.... The entire staff of Annapurna Interactive, the video-game publishing division of Annapurna studio, resigned this month following a dispute with its owner. Annapurna Interactive President Nathan Gary and his team had been negotiating with Megan Ellison to spin off the video-game division as an independent entity. When Ellison pulled out of the negotiations, Gary and other executives resigned and were followed by around two dozen other staffers. “All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned,’’ Gary and the group said in a joint statement. “This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly.” (source: https://lnkd.in/ehvi33Wg) To those who have resigned, if you are looking for new opportunities, please check them out here: 🥇First, reach out to us at People Can Fly Studio, we have many roles open right now in Canada, the UK, Ireland and Europe, please check them out here: https://lnkd.in/eWpV5PbA 🥈Next, Discipline Games Jobs Resources: Over the past months I have created 9 (at time of writing) Games Jobs Resources to find jobs in a wide range of disciplines, and I would urge you to check them out, if anything just to see what would be available to you: https://lnkd.in/ePywd2kq You can find over 6,000 jobs there. 🥉 Third, the Ultimate list of Video Games Career Resources: This should be your one-stop shop for all information. My dear friend Amir Satvat maintains these documents, he is a legend for doing this - please check them out: https://amirsatvat.com/ I urge you to check out the areas in particular about CV support and mentoring, as these will help you no matter what industry you are hailing from or are looking into going next. 🎖 Finally, do not give up. Ever. No matter how dark things may look right now, I KNOW you will get through this, you have got this! 👊 Remember you are not alone. If you need help, advice, or even an ear to listen, we're here for you. Always! ➡ A request to my community, please can I ask you to repost this post to your colleagues and friends, so that we can get as many into jobs as possible! And please comment if you or your studio are currently hiring - let's help each other! Much love ❤️ #annapurnainteractive #resignations

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Here's a timelapse of our main menu in Badlands Crew (screenshots taken by our regular build process). You can see how we really started with nothing. Towards the end where it starts jumping about is where we introduced animated cameras to the intro, and the process doesn't capture the screenshot at the exact same time through the motion (you can also see that because we're working on things much deeper in to the game, the main menu changes a lot less later on). This has been a complicated project to work on. We're still just a team of 4 (2 programmers, 2 artists - with anything that falls outside of those disciplines being covered a bit by all of us), and this game is huge. I've learnt a lot along the way on this one (but that's always the case). We've built a lot of stuff to help hold it all together. One of the most interesting things we've done (which we experimented a little with on the last project) is to ditch using Unity's "Update" (etc...) methods pretty much entirely in favour of our own update scheduler. This allows us to have stuff which updates infrequently, or only actually when it has something to worry about... it also means we can have things which aren't inherited from Unity's MonoBehaviour receiving the same update tick as things which are. We can also make this work nicer with jobs and raycast batching, too... so, there are many benefits. I have more timelapses which I will post another time, perhaps with some hashtags or banal motivational sentiment.

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In today's little bit of progress, we're working with a little bit of music and setting up some Enemy Animation Blueprints- just with patrolling and idling for the time being. These are called Agonized Hunters and probably for good reason. Lore is so fun to come up with, by the way. I suppose all the stories I started to write even as a kid should've been a grand sign towards my liking of storytelling, but I definitely know about it now. I thought it would be a nice touch for the light to turn red/add in some invincibility frames when the player comes in contact with them, as well as adding in a sliiiight distinction between the breakable platforms and the ones you can walk on regularly. On a semi-related note, something I only learned fairly recently: the Nav Mesh Bounds Volume in Unreal only registers traversable ground. That's why it's only the ground that turns green when you preview it and not the air that the volume may also be in contact with. If you're working with flying enemies you won't want to rely on those or the functions related to them (like GetRandomReachablePointInRadius and co.), since they will bring those flying guys right to the ground at best. You'll want to look into the Math function RandomPointInBoundingBox instead. ✨

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A small letter to Ubisoft. Ubi has said "𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘦, 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴, 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳-𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴." Come on UBI, we all want you to win, stop being such a silly goose. These two things are at odds with each other and this is why they are struggling, whilst you can marry up a "player-centric approach" whilst providing value to your shareholders, it's the fact these things even exist on an even playing field that they are struggling. Everytime, at least I can think of, that the shareholders pockets are considered as important as the game itself, the game does not do well, or at the very least it does poorly and has to be saved later by ripping all of that stuff that was put in to "make shareholders happy" out of it. Games make significantly more money when people actually want to play them, it's not complicated. So Ubi, as the creator of some of my favorite games, as the place I dreamed to work at as a kid, as a megalith of our industry, please go back to basics. go back and look at what truly made far cry 2 amazing, what made half the planet fall in love with roof jumping assassins and what ultimately led to your gargantuan success, because it's not pleasing shareholders, it's simply making games we all want to play. I know it's nowhere near this simple but for the love of god, we could all be playing the best pirate game ever made if you had focused more on the fun and less on the 1. All the best, your once biggest fan. P.S bin off live service outside of siege, you're clearly not cut out for it.

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The Sumo Group closures really have broken me a bit, and I need to rant about the state of things. I'm sorry if it seems I'm glossing over all the closures before this one, but so many ex-students went there, so many ex-colleagues passed through there, and so my timeline is just filled with people looking for work. We keep talking and talking about the economic factors involved, Brexit and Covid and this and that ... the thing I can't stop thinking of is that in my life I've watched the world slowly pitch into a place of despondent capitalism. Art has become more about making stars and fame than helping people escape and reflect. A drive for "truth" and objectivity has resulted, paradoxically, in people putting more stock in spreadsheets and numbers than people. I can't help but feel that if you're bleating about finance and trade deals and business decisions, you're ignoring the fact that general support for artistic and creative endeavours has declined sharply and is still declining, even in the so-called "art world". Games are ultimately always going to be the first to fall in a culture war against creativity, because games are ultimately and profoundly pointless things. That's the whole majesty of the medium: they make us feel profound feelings, they help us explore our existence by being separate from reality, but to do so they MUST bring us nothing tangible in return. The truth is that our industry will probably bounce back to some degree, but it's not any financial structures or cost systems that will save game development as a medium and an art form - it's a cultural shift to recognise the importance of expressive and explorative subjective art in the world today, and the need to support creative endeavours without the pressure of financial recompense.

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Great response to our first developer diary of A Quiet Place! This episode focuses on a crucial element: silence. In the world of AQP, silence is everything, where every sound can mean life or death. Check out the video here: https://lnkd.in/d2NnGEzv #videogame #development #AQP

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Want to learn how we took our card and set design process from months to hours? You should check out this webinar with Jessie Hughes from Leonardo Ai!

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This is a solid example of why I dislike the term of “narrative wrapper”, as I posted in response to Richard’s prior post. In entertainment, the push and pull between the upbeats and downbeats determines the depth of the emotional experience. The basic mental processes that drive us to enjoy games require that gameplay and narrative work harmoniously to achieve a proper connection. Cognitive fatigue is real, and it is one of the reasons UX has emerged as a distinct discipline over the years. How much friction does it take to sever the connection between product and player, and how can we minimize that friction? A constant onslaught of tense gameplay can stop the landing of an otherwise appealing emotional beat. Similarly, too much exposition between moments of play can dilute the player’s connection to the core gameplay loop. If a team wishes to maximize the appeal of their product, they must cater to the player fantasy, and that requires meeting consumers at the intersection of their biological and behavioural realities.

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Paradox Interactive announced today that Double Eleven, the developer behind Prison Architect 2, will be stepping away from the project after nine years with the Prison Architect franchise. Good news first, construction on Prison Architect 2 isn't being halted! Co-development studio Kokku, who's been working on the game since 2023 and previously collaborated with Double Eleven, will take the lead in bringing the sequel to completion. The news comes with a hint of complication. While Prison Architect 2 passed certification, negotiations between Paradox and Double Eleven for continued development reached an impasse. Technical hurdles, particularly with memory usage and minimum specifications, emerged during final testing. Paradox, likely wary of past performance issues (think Cities: Skylines 2), emphasizes their commitment to delivering a high-quality sequel that honors the Prison Architect legacy. Kokku, a Brazilian studio with a history of co-development and outsourcing on major titles like Horizon Forbidden West and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, is now at the helm to ensure Prison Architect 2's smooth launch. The Prison Architect series, which began in 2015 with the original simulation/management game, is still on track for a 2024 release with Prison Architect 2. While the development team has shifted, fans can rest assured that work on this highly anticipated sequel continues. (source: https://lnkd.in/dWtBvDhN)

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Back from seeing a lot of great people at Develop Brighton, which was busy enough to distract me from doing the usual daily recaps. Let's continue, shall we? Today on GamesIndustry.biz... (Thursday, July 11th 2024) 1. Your must read is Chris' opinion piece on yesterday's Xbox Game Pass price hike announcement, exploring how the move reflects the need for profitability, the strength of Xbox's first-party line-up, and how determined Microsoft is to make Game Pass work https://lnkd.in/e5-rqs5R 2. In the news, Shift Up - the South Korean developer behind Stellar Blade - raised $320m with its IPO, which was the largest for a games company from that nation since 2021 https://lnkd.in/eUQzGTNf 3. Splash Damage is the latest studio to face layoffs, with the studio telling us a "small number of roles" will potentially be made redundant following a review of the business. These are said to be mostly operational roles, with development largely unaffected https://lnkd.in/ejA-f6Ri 4. GAME has reportedly dropped yet another part of its offering. After ditching pre-owned, its loyalty scheme, and Xbox All Access, the retailer will now apparently stop taking in-store pre-orders from August 1. The reason? According to staff, it's because the tills have to cope with too much so parent company Frasers Group is making it so GAME stores (or rather concessions) can only sell and refund products https://lnkd.in/ehMY4sg3 5. Tencent is shutting down free-to-play shooter Synced after just one year of it being available to play https://lnkd.in/e4r3C-kP 6. And Embracer has secured a new €600m ($652m) revolving credit facility with a two-year tenor, replacing the existing €420m ($456m) one, due in May 2025 https://lnkd.in/eGNwZC3g There's more news over at www.gamesindustry.biz and make sure you're signed up to the GI Daily to get it all delivered to your inbox: https://lnkd.in/eAkx_zen

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Happy Wednesday all! Today I want to talk about hiccups setbacks and what to do when a troll enters the dungeon! Today as I was prepping an exciting review meeting with my technical artist on all the amazing VFX applicants I logged in and saw nothing. All gone! Poof! Not sure what happened possibly a glitch in the matrix or what not but plans had changed for the entire day and rest of the week in a flash. All I could do was to try and get things moving forward again. Can’t get mad about a setback no time! So I hopped on here sent the SOS to all the amazing individuals interested in the VFX role and stated the facts. -emails gone -review delayed -follow ups complicated And now it’s on to being a bit humble and asking for support. Anyone interested in the SENIOR VFX ROLE please reapply 🧡. Mistakes happen and hiccups and delays are all part of the startup life. It’s important to remind oneself to be professional under the hardest of times but also keep the larger picture in mind. This may have flipped my week upside down but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the weeks, months, years ahead. Much love everyone!

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Thoughts about Cynefin Narrative Assemblage Panel (Video game people, sorry for not niching down my content enough) Some time ago I was lucky to assist in a presentation led by Anna Panagiotou, Eleanor Snowden and Beth Smith about Narrative Assemblage and how it relates to #sensemaking and #anthrocomplexity. It was also a very good glimpse into The Cynefin Company higher level thinking and its links to neo materialism. Here is a few things i got from it. Observing complex systems like organizations, markets or worse, societies from a neutral position is not possible because as human observers, we’re embedded in the material/social reality, and transform it by our perceptions and our mere presence. “Humans, situated in, create wider social cultural webs who are materially embedded.” Eleanor Snowden The relationship between agency, perception and action is complex as they are deeply entangled (Karen Barad!). The classical obsessive western dichotomy between matter/conscience, materialism is outgrown by complexity, assemblage and the possibility of circular, dispositional causality (Alicia Juarrero!). For queer people like me, this perspective brought us Anne Fausto-Sterling Sex/Gender circular notion. There is no clear opposition between “Facts facts facts” or “It’s all narrative” explains Anne. “We make sense of fact through narrative, narrative become fact and constraints reality.” Anne Pagiatou In that way, narrative has material agency. “World make stories, we make stories and in turn, these stories make the world.” Narrative is not stories or storytelling. A narrative can exist without an author or with lots of it, and is not confined to a classical structure. Actions in space can be narrative. It’s a fundamental way we understand reality. I see profound links with Ajit Maan, Ph.D. “Inter Narrative Identity”. “Why is it that old wives tales are called old wives tales, when old men's tales are called Philosophy and religion.” Beth Smith Epistemic injustice is the lack of resources to understand some situated experiences that are so systemic that it gives a worldview that is deceiving and unjust by ignoring the agency of some actors. A lack of epistemic ressources is when you have no words like “conjugal violence” to describe your reality because it has not been told, retold through multiple stories and then understood and abstracted into an expression. Responsability, objectivity also need to be reframed if you can’t see and talk from an astral body like white cis dude philosophers do. A good beginning is the idea the effort to maintain awareness of the network of the relations to other actors and respect their dignity. Make stories in French, “Faire des histoires !” also means making a fuss, creating problems for everybody. So I guess it’s also about stirring up the pot a little. Again thanks to Beth, Eleanor and Anne for your generosity and brilliance. (Rare picture of a non human/ human actor network)

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