About

A vague and often misleading explanation

At The Cargo Cult we design tools. Tools for human operators. Tools for Post Production, Sound Design and Music.
They win awards etc.

If you’ve watched any quality film or ‘TV’ recently then you’ve heard our influence and your indoctrination has already begun. The forehead tattoo comes next.

We are mostly Justin Webster, creator of noises and softwares, operating mostly out of Wellington, New Zealand. Mostly.

For sales, licensing or bug reports please contact support@thecargocult.nz.
To report a lapsed member contact deathsquad@thecargocult.nz

And now the truth about The Cargo Cults…

A Cargo Cult is a system of beliefs and behaviours characterised by ritual and mimicry, but lacking in some fundamental element essential to the goal (the cargo).

During WW2 the allied forces set up shop in the remote Pacific islands of Melanesia, cutting landing strips to supply the war effort in the area. The local populations would share in the air-lifted bounty in return for their hospitality and watched in awe as the soldiers lured giant steel birds from the sky.

When the war ended and the cargo dried up, the locals continued making airstrips, marching in formation and building huts for their ground controllers. They built replica radios, guns and airplanes and trusted their efforts would not go unrewarded.

And so these groups became known as the Cargo Cults.

Richard Feynman then hijacked the term to describe bad science: studies which have the appearance of real research but lack some critical feature.

Software engineers talk of cargo cult programming: the ritualistic perpetuation of practices which may not be necessary at all – but who can recall?

And in product design we are even more willingly wooed by dogma: mimicry of hardware, analog circuitry and re-enactments of ancient workflows in the digital domain.

So we call ourselves “The Cargo Cult” – as a constant reminder that the easiest person to fool is yourself…