Technology - 'The alchemy of the analogue is more unpredictable, and therefore more alluring.'
This essay will analyse three different sources of text. It will explore how mistakes can play a significant part in the creation of unique and striking pieces of art; the digital age as a general subject and how analogue technology has been almost completely abolished due to increasingly demanding digital possibilities.
Is analogue technology more alluring due to its unpredictability? Or is it purely a simple time consuming inconvenience that is unnecessary in this day and age? Phil Taylor from the University of Brighton, Faculty of Arts department believes that, in his article ‘The Lo-Fi Phenomenon’, many artists and designers are immersed in digital technology and because “anyone can do it, there is no distinctiveness, no gatekeepers and no rebels”. People are losing a sense of ambition with regards to creating pieces of art. The reliance on digital editing is continually increasing and because of this more and more artists are losing the sense of authenticity created through analogue processes. Taylor goes on to talk about film and how the prolonged development process prevents any sense of impatience, which is a word that is paramount in why analogue technology is becoming more and more redundant
Film cameras - the process of making something requires skill and patience, things can quite easily go wrong which creates interesting results. The fact the process is completely out of your own control leads to a more exciting outcome. Melanie Rothschild, a self taught artist, backs my argument up to some extent. She believes that mistakes are key in the development of our creative process. The setbacks along the way can be viewed as a driving force in creating new adventures. After she ‘accidently’ spilled a gallon of paint on the floor, she felt it was ‘too messy to clean’ and left it for a few days to dry. She managed to peel it all off in one ‘glorious piece’ and this then inspired her to create more spillages. This links so well with the Lo Fi article particularly in terms of the focus on creating authentic pieces of art through analogue processes and the idea that the unpredictable result creates alluring outcomes - this presents the idea that mistakes are what make us improve, make us more skillful and knowledgeable and most importantly, more successful. This also backs up the idea of ‘Aura’ by Walter Benjamin, his theory of art historically having an aura - a sense of uniqueness . He believes this has ‘disappeared in the modern age because art has become more reproducible’. Mistakes in art simply cannot be reproduced or repeated somehow which gives them that sense of uniqueness that Benjamin is talking about.
It seems like people are losing the urge to learn new skills, as things are becoming more and more fast paced within contemporary 21st century society. One of the main causes of this was the effect of the Industrial Revolution when the printing press was invented. It was created to be more efficient and faster than making manual copies. The press experienced constant development until it could print one million copies a day. This of course not only created more of a fast paced world, but people lost their jobs as they simply were not needed anymore. The slow movement of analogue technology is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. The book ‘In Praise of Slowness’ performed on ‘TED talks’ (2005) by Carl Honore conveys the importance of quality over quantity in everything from work to food to parenting. The book tells the story of how people are constantly rushing things throughout the day, causing you to not remember things as vividly as if you were to stop and thoroughly focus on something. This idea represents analogue technology as being the slow movement whereas digital is presented as the fast one. Digital technology can now rapidly keep reproducing pieces of art without much effort and within a matter of minutes. This idea relates back to what Phil Taylor was saying about film, the idea that because the development of film is a delayed process, it in fact takes time to produce but you are gaining some amount of skill and knowledge through the process.
Carl Honore’s transcript and Phil Taylor’s Lo Fi Article are both written in favour of the analogue world. However what is quite interesting is that Lo Fi (an acronym meaning low quality) is used in Phil Taylor’s title but he then states later on in the article that ‘analogue equates to low quality’. This indicates a huge contrast to the whole meaning and concept behind Honore’s transcript which backs the idea of quality over quantity, stating that ‘we're living the fast life, instead of the good life,’ and taking more time to achieve certain things will make for a more quality outcome. (now make a concluding statement of the paragraph and relate to the title’s trigger words)
Melanie Rothschild’s story is a perfect reflection of what my quote is intending to suggest. The unpredictable nature of analogue technology and mistakes it can create is exactly what her article is depicting which thus makes the outcome more alluring. Perhaps the difference between this article and that of Honore’s is that if everyone was to thoroughly take their time on everything they do and particularly make sure they are making the most out of life (the slow movement) then maybe mistakes wouldn’t happen? Carl Honore says having breaks and slowing down from work is very beneficial. He backs this up with an example of a school in Scotland who have decided to ban homework so the pupils get the opportunity to slow down at the end of the day so your brain can process everything - the pupils achieved higher grades as a result as they weren’t making mistakes due to their fast paced brain. In the controlled environment where people don’t rush around to get things done, mistakes like that simply do not happen. Taking more time and putting more effort into certain situations, allows people to gain a greater knowledge and develop new skills, something which perhaps isn’t so easily achieved with the development of the latest digital technology.
The Lo Fi article goes on to mention ‘happy accidents’ to cause an ‘unpredictable outcome’. This backs up both my quote as a whole and Melanie Rothschild's theory that mistakes make for a more alluring outcome. Mistakes are something which cannot be replicated. Firstly, because people learn from them as part of the development process, and secondly, making the exact same mistake twice is very unlikely, so therefore there is a possibility of creating a one off and unique outcome.
So all three sources have overriding similarities and a few differences but the main point is that mistakes are paramount in making individual unique pieces of art - for example in Pollock and his splattered paint effect, as opposed to Lichtenstein's digital paint brush mark - a complete slap in the face to not only Pollock but to the whole analogue world.
So, yes the world is becoming more and more digital due to the lack of people’s patience and the faster pace of contemporary society. Digital appeals because it is less time consuming and more convenient medium, but making mistakes along the way is by no means a bad thing, in actual fact it could potentially create something exciting and allows us to go into projects with an open mind without knowing what possibilities are lurking around the corner.
Bibliography
Phil Taylor - The Lo Fi Phenomenon (2010) http://futureplaces.org/essays/the-lo-fi-phenomenon-analogue-versus-digital-in-the-creative-process/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py-FJ1vAa24&t=120s Youtube (Published 12 September 2014) Editor Amy Jones
https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/walter-benjamin-art-aura-authenticity/ Andrew Robinson (June 14 - 2013)
LCA Context of Practice lecture
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