Week #7
Now. What does all this mean? What is digital futures? What does it try to entail.
Well, lucky you, I think I might know.
We, as humans, have evolved, but not in the traditional sense, we didn’t grow claws, we don’t grow scales or fur, no, we evolved in a completely new way uniquely to us.
We created things to do what we cannot, what other living things cannot.
And with that we as humans have recorded this evolution through art, from the renaissance to the industrial evolution, every single second is recorded through painting or even cameras, which in it self is a form of technical evolution.
Its an interesting parallel, no?
Seymour Fogel, “The Wealth of the Nation,” 1938
As seen here, this is just from the recovering from the great depression, so a lot of art and photos from this time period is very much based on the working man and wealth.
Thus, the recording of human progress, a booster to a new age.
This pattern of recording the progress of humans through technology was first recognised around the 19th century with the movement of Modernity. This does indeed still include periods before modernity was developed with as said earlier, the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods of 17th and 18th century respectively.
Now, from the moment the camera was invented, it was in human nature to start recording with it, to take a moment of history and capture that in the moment.
And let me tell you, there was a lot of recording done.
in 1930s alone there was already 1 billion photos already taken, leading to the modern era with 2014 alone equalling 1 trillion photos with the number percent increasing by 25 each year.
And with this, many can say that cameras are one of the single most important pieces of human intelligence ever invented.
One of the oldest photographic portraits known, 1839 or 1840, made by John William Draper of his sister, Dorothy Catherine Draper
Now, where else can we go with this. We pretty much covered it all from earliest to modern times… hmm…. HOW ABOUT THE FUTURE! Lets get weird. Lets get interesting. Lets get digital.
What do you think of A.I.? Artificial intelligence, in a brief overview, a artificial mind that can think and learn like a human. Do you think its possible? Maybe its already happening behind our backs.
Do you think these A.I. can create art? and I don’t mean a pretty picture, I mean true art, art that truly means something, art that has a deeper meaning and is rooted in something far more than what’s on the surface.
Do you think A.I. will be moved by a piece of art, will it feel the emotion put into that piece? Can it translate that emotion into a piece of work of its own?
Its hard to tell obviously, because we don’t like in those times, we don’t know the future, maybe we will develop A.I. so advance that it will even gain human rights like in Overwatch (Video Games).
Overwatch Cinematic
“Alive” – 2016
As seen here, in this universe, its in the far future, and A.I. has developed so far that it has gained free will, emotion, and even philosophy in almost a shaolin monk type.
Overwatch Cinematic
“Hero” – 2016
Omnics (the A.I. citizens) are then subjugated and attacked by those who think they are simply “nuts and bolts” not capable to be on par with the human race.
This leads into a whole military crisis revolution by the omnics.
But that’s besides the point, and honestly going into far more detail than necessary. Its just proving a point of what our future might hold, because you never know here it will take us.
That’s the end of Digital Futures blog, I really hope you enjoyed reading this one, I had a lot of fun with ideas and writing, as well as a little self study into the subject.
Ill see you next week with a new subject.
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A Dapper Blog about Photography 