WEEK 2
Leo Marx- Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept
&
Edward Shanken- Art and Electronic Media (Survey Essay)
The beginning of the Leo Marx Essay is a quote
"… the essence of technology is by no means anything technological."- Martin Heidegger
This pretty much sums up the entire essay in one quote. This essay was very dense and full of lots of information about how Marx views technology. I feel that this essay is the perfect start to this course. It makes you question from the beginning of modern technology to the advanced technology of today, if it is what we want? Do we want technology to evolve more? Do we like where technology is going? What happened to the way we used to view technology and the advancements that have been made?
One of Marx's major themes is the "word technology." The word technology started out as a "mechanical word" or the act of creating what we now refer to as technology. Marx- "The word technology, which joined the Greek root, techie(an art or craft) with the suffix ology (a branch of learning), first entered the English language in site seventeenth center. At that time, in keeping with the etymology, a technology was a branch of learning, or discourse, or treatise concerned with the mechanic arts. As Eric Schatzberg has demonstrated in a seminal essay, the word then referred to a field of study, not an object of study."
Marx is suffering from the fact that phones are glued to hands, GPS has replaced maps, TVs are now in every room of the house, and there is no realization for the mechanic arts or act of technology. Now everything is technology and all of it is incorporated into our day to day lives and as a society we would all be completely lost without it. Marx quotes Walden in his defense: "There is an illusion about… [modern improvements]; there is not always a positive advance… Our inventions all want to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end."
In class we discussed about how technology is about the device rather than the relationships. I completely agree, when phones are present, people interactions become the second or third or fourth or fifth attempt at trying to reach someone. First, you contact someone with your phone, or through email, Facebook possibly? What happened to, lets meet for coffee, or sending a letter in the mail? Everything is directly at our fingertips, yet we don't even realize how good it is to have it.
I have recently moved to Indiana to go to Purdue and I can personally tell you that I wish I did not have a smart phone before I came here. I think about all the time I wasted on my phone before I got here, instead of spending time with the people that I miss so much right now! On the opposite side, I am now too incredibly thankful for my smart phone because it keeps me connected to the people I have at home. It is a double edge sword that everyone is taking part in.
Do you sometimes wish it was like the days before big screens and cellphone watches? My family didn't have a TV until I was 13 and then when we got that TV we had weekly movie nights. We couldn't watch TV until those times or we got it as a reward. It was special and something we aspired to want! Now it is just a TV with all my shows that I watch all the time. I miss the illusive nature of technology, do you?
To view a lot of the ways technological arts are advancing in the field of Art, you can look over the Edward Shanken: Art and Electronic Media (Survey Essay.) This survey gives great reference from the beginning to now on past and present technological arts in the fashion of art.
http://www.artelectronicmedia.com/
"… the essence of technology is by no means anything technological."- Martin Heidegger
This pretty much sums up the entire essay in one quote. This essay was very dense and full of lots of information about how Marx views technology. I feel that this essay is the perfect start to this course. It makes you question from the beginning of modern technology to the advanced technology of today, if it is what we want? Do we want technology to evolve more? Do we like where technology is going? What happened to the way we used to view technology and the advancements that have been made?
One of Marx's major themes is the "word technology." The word technology started out as a "mechanical word" or the act of creating what we now refer to as technology. Marx- "The word technology, which joined the Greek root, techie(an art or craft) with the suffix ology (a branch of learning), first entered the English language in site seventeenth center. At that time, in keeping with the etymology, a technology was a branch of learning, or discourse, or treatise concerned with the mechanic arts. As Eric Schatzberg has demonstrated in a seminal essay, the word then referred to a field of study, not an object of study."
Marx is suffering from the fact that phones are glued to hands, GPS has replaced maps, TVs are now in every room of the house, and there is no realization for the mechanic arts or act of technology. Now everything is technology and all of it is incorporated into our day to day lives and as a society we would all be completely lost without it. Marx quotes Walden in his defense: "There is an illusion about… [modern improvements]; there is not always a positive advance… Our inventions all want to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end."
In class we discussed about how technology is about the device rather than the relationships. I completely agree, when phones are present, people interactions become the second or third or fourth or fifth attempt at trying to reach someone. First, you contact someone with your phone, or through email, Facebook possibly? What happened to, lets meet for coffee, or sending a letter in the mail? Everything is directly at our fingertips, yet we don't even realize how good it is to have it.
I have recently moved to Indiana to go to Purdue and I can personally tell you that I wish I did not have a smart phone before I came here. I think about all the time I wasted on my phone before I got here, instead of spending time with the people that I miss so much right now! On the opposite side, I am now too incredibly thankful for my smart phone because it keeps me connected to the people I have at home. It is a double edge sword that everyone is taking part in.
Do you sometimes wish it was like the days before big screens and cellphone watches? My family didn't have a TV until I was 13 and then when we got that TV we had weekly movie nights. We couldn't watch TV until those times or we got it as a reward. It was special and something we aspired to want! Now it is just a TV with all my shows that I watch all the time. I miss the illusive nature of technology, do you?
To view a lot of the ways technological arts are advancing in the field of Art, you can look over the Edward Shanken: Art and Electronic Media (Survey Essay.) This survey gives great reference from the beginning to now on past and present technological arts in the fashion of art.
http://www.artelectronicmedia.com/
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