RRB 3

2/4/20

Reading: Reflection on the previous activity

For our last class, we had the chance to experiment with five methods to transcribe and document thoughts. We were given three tasks and ten minutes to complete them. It was quite rare that I even completed all the tasks and the level of quality varied for each. I started with clay modeling first. We had little tools we could use to sketch words into the clay, calling back to how civilizations would oversee finances within the state which date back to 9000 BCE. I did not attempt to transcribe the passage in Latin but focused on the drawing of a map between Cowgill and where I live, Fourth Street apartments. I quickly realized that the allocation of space would be difficult and the level of detail I could achieve was minimal. However, if I made a mistake, I could quickly smudge it away, but I don’t think ancient scribes had that luxury. Otherwise, I could feel myself becoming frustrated. The images and words I was trying to convey were not easily represented. So when I wrote “Fourth Street”, you could barely read it. It struck me how easily a word could be misread in this context, which could lead to some serious mistakes in transcribing ancient documents. The next station I went to involved crayons and paper, which I was very excited about. I think no matter what age I’m at, I will always smile at the prospect of being able to use bright, colorful crayons. Which brings me to my point about using crayons; they allow for an easy creative expression unlike any of the other stations (painting is a little different in my opinion). There are so many colors, so the level of detail you can include in the more artistic tasks could improve dramatically. So instead of just writing about my favorite movie La La Land, I could illustrate some of the most memorable scenes. I could use colors that were central to the film’s palette. However, you did have to press a bit harder into the paper than with a pencil or pen, but that’s a willing sacrifice for the expressive colors in my opinion. 

Next, I went to the iPad (my iPhone) station. I know I could’ve taken a picture of the passage and posted it to my notes, or even downloaded Latin onto my phone through Google Translate, but I decided to transcribe it instead. I thought that it would take around 4 minutes because I type very quickly, but I ran into an unanticipated issue. Spell check on my phone would always correct a word without me noticing. So half of the battle was making sure the word I typed stayed the same! For the other tasks, I was able to take a screenshot of my position in Cowgill and use Apple Maps to look up directions to my apartment on fourth street. I could also just insert a link to an article explaining why La La Land is one of the best films in a while (which I completely agree). After the iPhone experience, I went to the typewriter, which I was very excited about. It was much harder than I thought and I made a comment in class about it makes sense that so many older men and women suffer from carpal tunnel and arthritis in their hands because of the continuous straining the hands must experience in order for a sentence to be legible. I can also note the difficulty of not making a mistake. Unlike the clay or my phone, I could not easily just erase or smudge a mistake and keep going. At one point, I was just writing on the same line and didn’t even notice it! 

The last station to be used involved paint but was meant to represent a quill and pen. During my tours at the Old State Capital, I talk a lot about what life was like for the representatives in the mid 19th century and I wondered how they could write so small and legibly by using essentially small paintbrushes. Perhaps they honed their craft from a young age, or maybe some people had horrible penmanship, just like today (specifically my older brother). This station also allowed for creativity in a similar way to the crayons but was still limited due to what can be accomplished with a paintbrush and little talent. So smaller things, like letters, were kinda impossible to make, so instead, I painted a picture from another fond movie of mine, Finding Nemo. 

Each method had its limitations and areas that were expanded to allow for a more intricate final product. In Brooke’s piece, he points out that there will always be critics of new forms of technology and complaints on how some sort of art will be lost. I think it is important to look at these tools as just that, tools. They are not bad or good nor have some overall morality. It’s like any other tool that has the potential to be extraordinarily helpful or injurious to a person or form. Perhaps looking at their effects might be a little overdone, but instead looking at why we invent objects to help with specific tasks. What does that say about the average person and what they look for in a product? A larger iPhone comes out because people want the text on their phones to be bigger. Another iPhone comes out with a better camera because people like to take pictures. Each iteration shows what the company believes the general public will value. I think that conversation is very interesting and I’d love to hear what the rest of the class thought! Overall, I liked this experiment.