Jonathan Harris is an artist and code writer. He said he's always had an underlying schizophrenia in his life between physical stuff and digital stuff. He kept tons of sketchbooks that he worked in daily, and painted every chance he could. At the age of 22, Jonathan was robbed and gun point and the bad they took contained a sketchbook that had about 8 months worth of work in it. He stopped keeping those sketchbooks and started creating art on the computer because he didn't want his stuff to be destroyed. He turned to his training in computers science to create various informational graphics. He talked about how he got so wrapped up a project called "I Want You to Want Me" he hardly felt human anymore, and after this project was completed, he went into a bad phase of depression.
He read the audience something he wrote about a quote Hemingway said. He talks about how to live life boldly is difficult because when you write code you can't really live life. He felt like he was serving the computer, not the computer serving him. Everyone is smart and ambitious, but no one seems to be wise anymore. Our world is sadly too wrapped up in technology to interact with each other in a personal way. No one has really stopped to think about what this technology is doing to us has humans.
He talked about the mind of a programmer. Just like a computer, the human mind only has so much space and memory. When you are a programmer, one must visualize the program and know where everything is. This, in time, will fill up the whole brain, leaving no room for personal interactions. So in a way, there is a trade off of either being a good person and a person with feelings, and having those personal moments, or just letting technology control your life with no feelings.
The web use to be a place of experimentation; everyone had weird things and diverse. Gradually, more and more people began to come on the internet, but weren't sure how to "build their home in this space." Companies swept in and provided places for these people. He used the analogy of everyone having a huge, free apartment in this new condominium.
Ideas are not the goal. The goal is the goal. The outcome. Idea is just a technique. As designers, we often get too wrapped up in how cool and sexy an idea is.
The digital world is becoming the world.
I completely responded to this video. Unfortunately, I get so frustrated and tired of using computers. I get so wrapped up in my work that I sometimes do feel inhuman. Everything he said, while I didn't relate to everything he was saying, I did understand how the art of code could take the emotion out of a person.
No comments:
Post a Comment