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My husband and I watched this program on Netflix last night and kind of had a "revelation" between the two of us. A part of the way my husband put it went kind of like this "When you learned to draw and do art you started with paper and coloring books. When I learned to draw (17yrs between us) I used Microsoft Paint and now my brother, age 10, is not only using paper he's using the PS3 game Little Big Planet to create and build thing. Who knows what comes next but we can't condemn children and people of today for being so plugged in. We think imagination is being lost but perhaps it's being transformed into a new kind of imagination?" If I had grown up with the technology kids are using and are being exposed to now I wouldn't know what to do without it! Once we move forward in the innovation and technology, it's very hard to go back without feeling we are regressing. This show was very interesting and enlightening. If you haven't seen it - I recommend it.
Digital Nation - Life On The Virtual Frontier | FRONTLINE | PBS
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- Public Discussion (5)
Hi Jackie
We think imagination is being lost but perhaps it's being transformed into a new kind of imagination?"
I never thought of it in the terms of being transformed, but you have a point. One of the things I do with my job is to make activity handouts and displays for our theme weekends. When my handout work is more intense such as creating original clipart to include in it, I have to walk away from the computer and spend a few hours outside before I can come up with new ideas for activities or new ways of running them. My brain feels sluggish and ideas are slow to come if I don't allow my brain to unwind. When I want to be creative on my computer, I need to play around on my computer for a while organizing it or playing a game to get back into my computer mode and technical way of thinking.
Even though computer programs can do some awesome things, you can still only work as far as the program allows you to and we are still closed inside a box. Sometimes I find to make a work of art greater, taking it outside of the computer box and brainstorming on paper brings new ideas to the picture.
In agreement with your idea of imagination being transformed, I also feel we need to get away from our digital world so our minds can expand into other areas and give us alternative thinking without the confines of a computerized program. IMO, if we just stick to one way of creating pictures, we then lose the additional benefits of other ways of creating.
- 2 votes
#1 - Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:15 PM ESTPonGoad I am so glad you wrote what you did here because I completely agree with you -- in creation and imagination there must be balance. I agree with you that we need to stay with one foot in the tangible world to truly create cyber realities and art.
What I realized watching this program is I come from a different time - grew up in the late 60's. It wasn't until I joined the military in 1986 that we were on the precipice of computers. In my job of personnel, I watched our computer technicians using data cards (God forbid you dropped the box) to process data. For my 16 year career in the Air Force I was in a job that was part of a steady evolution of technology....it's truly amazing how far we've come even beyond 2002 when I retired! Music compressed into MP3 files....I can remember LP's and 8 tracks!!
Sink, swim or get left behind is kind of the way of things right now. From what you write here, you seem to come a similiar origin as myself. You see the value of technology but remain in touch with the natural world....a place of energy and endless inspiration! Each day the sky's canvas is different for our viewing pleasure..even the most seemingly mundane as the steam rising from muffins out of the oven (just did that lol).
I think, watching the speed at which human beings are operating, in order to keep up with technologic innovations, that we are headed to a point where many will fail to see the need for tangibility...even their physical bodies! Just create an avatar and live vicariously through them! Never need a facelift, organ transplant or boob job with an avatar lol. Will we end up just communication telepathically...our thoughts processing too fast for a physical body to process? Will future Thanksgiving dinners consist of avatars sitting around a computer generated turkey? Will we be plugged in to our avatars so we can even smell, taste and feel the turkey? Feel the warmth of a hug from Mom and Dad? I feel that's where we are going. May be not in my lifetime but beyond.
Anyhew lol - as you may be can tell - this is a topic of interest for me. Thanks again for your visit and very insightful comments!
- 1 vote
Wow, Jackie
Your thoughts are so like mine. Your can express it more eloquently that I do, but they are the same. I wrote an essay for college once expressing the same thing about how, IMO, I feel we will eventually lose the personal contact with each other and see and experience life only through our computer screens.
So many of these technical articles seem to be buried and, as to be expected, do not attract many viners, being as they are in the technical realm and do not attract viners who are looking to stir things up. How can you argue with things that are black and white? Technology to me means metal, etc which has a cold edge to it. I can't help but think seeing our world strickly through the glaze of a computer screen will have a cold edge, too. Thank goodness there are those of us who still can appreciate the value of the real human touch and not a fake one.
Pon
- 2 votes
Pon I sent you a friend invite - got to keep connected to kindred spirits! Your comments help me not feel so alone with my perspectives on things. You are right, people are so "plugged in", Viners included, that these topics do slip under the radar or don't generate much interest. Having you stop in and comment was a unexpected and delightful surprise!
- 1 vote
Hi Jackie
FR accepted. Do me a favor...when you write or seed an article make a comment on it so I know you have new material. :) Thanks.
Pon
- 2 votes
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