Thoughts on Technology

What is technology?

I think that technology is a tool designed to aid people to do certain things that they cannot achieve otherwise with their body. In other words tools are in a way deviations of the human body as noted from Marshall Mcluhan. Most of the time when we mention the word 'technology', we think of computers and electrical equipment, but it can be items that we don't pay much attention to in our day to day life.

Some of the technologies mentioned in the tutorial include glasses (an improvement of the eye to help us see), and the cell phone (an improvement of speech and hearing). My personal favorite is the computer, which is in a way an extension of our brain.

Just an interesting fact, in Chinese, the word computer is translated to literally 'electronic brain'.


What role do you see technology playing in art?

If technology is an deviation of our physical body, then the role technology plays in art is a tool to extend our sensations and thoughts. It allows us to feel something that we cannot otherwise feel and have a discussion with artists and other viewers we cannot otherwise talk to from our location. Technology also creates a new medium for artists to make art. Referring back to the lecture, the artist Moholy-Nagy created a set of instructions that can be transmitted through the phone or the internet so that someone on the other end could create the same image with the exact proportions. It is the invention of the grid, telephone, and internet that has allowed him to accomplish this.