Monthly Archives: May 2010
Love and Hate Relationship with Technology
We love to embrace technology. In fact, that’s how we believe the world of arts works, by using technology as tools and medium, from the simple piece of pencil and paper, acoustic music instruments, to much advance computerised technology.
However, facing the fast evolving digital media and its related computer technology, there is some kind of unpleasant tiredness. We sometimes feel that we’ve drawn to the wrong side, where the medium is all matter, not the essence how we use it.
On one side, we have to admit that we ourselves is the one to blame. It usually starts from the curiosity to explore, then transforms into eagerness to mastering a latest technology as new medium. (Yap, the mastery is what believe as the essential beginning before we can smartly wander the new playground and build new work on it). Unfortunately, the development of digital media tends to be fast evolving, and well-known endless. Catching up with the latest one can be exhausting. Yet, it is simply something we have full control, and we have no problem at all to drive the pace.
On the other side, it is a matter of commercial demand. As technologies become attached to man’s life, they very often are part of trends and lifestyles need to be fulfilled. And, in the world of economy, these may be exploited. Then, mastering the latest technology is part of competitive skill of survival. On this side, then we sometimes have to let ourselves drawn to this stream, a ‘must’ to adapt it as a new tool.
We don’t really see our selves a technician (no offense at all to all call themselves as technician). We only see the technology as an extension, medium, and sometimes the playground, but not as its own interest. It is more about how we use it for, if necessary.
For sure, in general we never fully comfortably with the feeling so attached and depended with our tools. Unfortunately, it is a kind of must, since that’s the tool we use. But in essence, we don’t like being the slaved of it and dictated by them. The matter is about our relationship with human being we live for, not about our life with the technology.
Well, this is just another note of our love and hates relationship with technology as we try to embrace it, a complex relationship that can’t be decided by just ‘love it or loathe it’.