As I read ‘Toward An Aesthetic of Transition’ I was reminded that all new technology throughout history was met with skepticism and dismay. Even in our modern day era we have replayed this scenario. Remember the big scare of Y2K? Or maybe the financial doomsday that computers would inflict on us when financial computers would freeze and send markets into a tail spin. I think it is human nature to be scared of the unknown or to greet it with a certain look of uncertainty. Today’s world is changing and evolving faster than any point in recorded history and with that change comes the rhetoric and prophecy of impending doom (remember when they were simulating the Big Bang Theory in France by colliding atoms together it was signaling the end of the world?) . If we would examine history closer we can find examples of technology spurring newer technology giving us better technological resources to share our work to a wider audience. It was described best in this reading that ‘inherited forms and traditions limit even inhibit, at least at the start, a full understanding of the intrinsic or unique potential of emerging technologies‘. We should not be fearful of new forms of technology, but learn to understand them and even be thoughtful of its potential.
I feel that these so-called new and emerging forms of technology given to us today are not necessarily new, but a more mature form of past inventions. For instance. The iPod. First came people gathering around to listen to music by the fire, in town squares and eventually music halls. Then the recorded wax record, which could only be purchased by those who were from a prestigious or affluent background. Then came the eight track, cassette, Walkman, CD’s and finally the MP3 player. The audio has always been there and the basic function of audio has not changed, the medium has. It has given the masses something that was once cherished by few and now shared by many. The evolution of this technology did not changed the core of what it was, audio, it has always remained the same. It was once feared that downloaded and share music would be the end of the music industry and we know now that hasn’t happened. If anything it has spurred new ways to market, distribute and share music to the masses through a new form of technology; the Internet and World Wide Web.
The process on change in existing technology is inevitable and as discussed in this reading it is ‘part of the way in which cultures define and renew themselves‘. Old media rarely dies it is just redesigned, transformed, made into a hybrid medium, which in turn provides a new purposes. For example the computer. Computers dominate most every aspect of our lives today. Many books, encyclopedias, dictionaries and research books can be found online, but that does not signal that books are becoming obsolete. Books have just transformed into new ways of being obtained. The words are still there, its just they way they are presented has changed. If a book was presented in paperback form or in electronic form the way to access them has not differed. The reader must still read words to gain the information, it’s just the medium has change or evolved. You can even call it a hybrid of past technologies merged into one. In the future who knows? Maybe books can be accessed through osmosis? The physical manifestation of the medium might not be tangible, but the symbols (words) and what they mean, even inside of you mind must be deciphered and understood. It’s a different, even evolved medium, same purpose.
The ending to this read sums it up the best in saying that ‘we must resist the notion of media purity‘. Media is not pure and it is ever changing and evolving. There is no one medium that has not capitalized on another to invent a better product. We must not be transfixed on the definition of mediums and what their purposes are but encourage their change and and seek where they can take us in future.