My mother’s generation burned their bras. I think my generation is burning paper. Seriously, I’m starting to hate the stuff and all the waste. For example, twice a week Josh and I receive this “coupon mailer” and “bargain savings” pile of papers in the mail. We never look at it, it just goes straight into the recycling (hey, at least we recycle now). What a waste!
I used to be into scrapbooking. Now I hate it. I was looking at my scrapbooks thinking, “Why on earth would I spend my time to sit down and make those when I could just post the pics on the web?” Then it dawned on me that life has changed. There isn’t anything gratifying to me to be able to hold pictures in my hand, or even to hang pictures on my wall (all frames should be digitized). In fact, it’s annoying.
I have become the queen of the pdf document. I still wish I could read, take notes, and highlight things that are on my computer though. There needs to be a program that allows me to make highlights and notations on a pdf. There is Zinio now, so you can have a magazine reading experience withouth the paper (and I’m hoping also without the expense).
I used to want the Canon EOS 35mm SLR camera, now I want the Canon EOS Digital. I don’t ever want to buy a photo album again. Stupid things.
Burning paper is my message of rebellion against what many people today feel is a print-dominated society that forces people into unnecessary and wasteful foundations soley for the viewing pleasure of the population. And I don’t need it. Let’s light up!
Steph Lewis's Blog
There’s something tactile about paper that will never go away. You curl up with a good book or magazine, but good luck doing that with a computer. Maybe some day they’ll invent some sort of reader type device that digitizes the Sunday afternoon reading experience, but I can’t imagine it being as satisfying as a good dog-eared, underlined book.
Since you’re an artist, I’d be curious to hear what you think about this digital society in terms of art. Do you think all art should become digital as well? Even the creation aspect? Digital paints, mixing, etc.?
There’s also worries with being so digitally focused about the permanance of digital files. As much as we don’t like to think about it, computers crash, CDs fail, hard drives die. I’ve got plenty of files from 5-10 years ago that I’ll have trouble accessing in the not-too-distant future because software or hardware (floppy discs!?) has changed.
Just some thoughts.
Pardon my digital elitism:
Actually, Kevin, digital files will last far, far longer than any paper file. I can guarantee you that without extremely special care, all your paper copies and photos will be crumpling to dust 150 years from now. But with a reasonable amount of care, performable by even an average person, digital files will last IN PERFECT CONDITION for thousands of years. Every time a new hardware storage medium comes out, there is an easy way to bridge from one to the next. So you could move your stuff from floppies, to CDs, to DVDs, to external hard drives, etc. There’s a price to pay, yes, but that’s also true with the upkeep of paper copies, and paper copies take way, way more room.
So I think the truth is the absolute opposite of what you said.
I agree with your point on the tactile experience, though. I don’t want the batteries on my book to run out. Still, I think technology will reach a point some day where it is possible to mimic paper very closely with a digital medium, and have a book-like device that will display any book/magazine/photo you want (all with your own notes and hilighting/underlining), and still feel like paper. That’s not too far-fetched, it’s just a decade or two away.
I still haven’t give up books. You can tell that by my monthly book spenditure and all the broken bindings on the shelf. I can’t “curl up” with the computer as well as I can curl up with a book. One major issue with the computer is that either 1. it’s not portable or 2. if it is portable the screen can only be viewed from certain angles and in certain light conditions. I like to sit outside and read and, the computer sucks at that. So…books haven’t been digitized in a way that pulls me in yet.
But pictures. I pretty much only like them digital now. It irritates me to think of paying to get photos developed…even the crappy ones (because I don’t know which ones are and are not crappy until after I get them developed). The digital media with pictures is way better because I can shoot pics with wreckless abandon and just delete the stupid ones, plus touch up the good ones, plus have them immediately accessible via the web (playable in slide shows, etc.)…and so on. Pictures just shouldn’t be on paper anymore.
I still love the Black & White darkroom, though. I just bought an enlarger recently and am probably going to get it running when Neal comes out so we can develop some pics. That’s just good fun…something grainy and real about it. But, I don’t want to document the everyday of my life that way. As for the art stuff…there is something spiritual about being a creator when you do paintings, drawings, sculptures, etc. I think a computer is an artistic tool right along with the traditional art tools. An artist needs to use the tool that best expresses their intentions. The problem with the computer is that it sometimes relies on no skill. I have a friend that recently decided they wanted to become a photographer, so they take really crappy pictures, bring them into iPhoto and click the “enhance” button, maybe do a bit of cropping…then argue about how great their “photograpic work” is. I think a person can express themselves using this method, but I don’t think it shows a great deal of skill. Good art (in my opinion) is a marriage of skill/technique and effectively conveying an idea/emotion.
The other day Josh and I were in the Apple Store (duh…it was the weekend) and were looking at the huge storage capacity of those babies. I turned to Josh and said, “You know how your parents have tons of boxes of stored memories in their basement? We won’t need those because we’ll just have a really nice hard drive to store our stuff on.” He chuckled and said I was probably right.
Sorry Josh, but I’m with Kevin on this one. At this point technology is changing too fast for a long term storage solution. I for one am looking for a one time, easy to do archival solution. Spending a chunk of time every few months or years to keep my memories in a format that I will be able to access does not strike me as being an ideal solution, especially as the amount of stuff I am storing increases over the years.
CD’s and external hard drives aren’t a permanent solution either. CD’s are vulnerable to acidic ink, scratches, obsolescence and many other problems as well. Hard drives can be affected by random cosmic radiation which leads to random bit loss but they fall prey to a more insidious predator, technological advancement. Take for instance a brand new FireWire 800 hard drive. How many years before FireWire 800 is no longer supported on current machines because other superior technologies take over? Look at the serial port for an example.
So you could store all of your memories on a hard drive but then you would have to store all the equipment that can use it too. Me, I’ll take my boxes of snapshots in the basement any day.
I agree, Kevin, we’re not there yet. My only claim here is that digital is much closer to the perfect solution for preserving certain kinds of assets (photos, writing, etc) than the traditional, non-digital solutions are.
Steph, I don’t know if you know about the pdf options that adobe’s acrobat 6.0.1 professional can offer. I think it may help you with your desire to augment pdf’s
CDs, DVDs Human After All