ART511 - Locative Studio Spring 2008

“Professionally our methods of transmitting and reviewing the results of research are generations old and by now are totally inadequate for their purpose. If the aggregate time spent in writing scholarly works and in reading them could be evaluated, the ratio between these amounts of time might well be startling. Those who conscientiously attempt to keep abreast of current thought, even in restricted fields, by close and continuous reading might well shy away from an examination calculated to show how much month’s efforts could be produced on call.” - Vannevar Bush “As We May Think”

This passage got me thinking about the amount of reading we are assigned in our classes. Now this is just an opinion, but sometimes I feel as though my collective classes assign so much reading that I do not have the time to process the information. I would much rather have less readings assigned, time to ponder them, be assigned an analytical response and discussion on the readings. Maybe this is just something that I have to get used to as a university student, but I’m not certain that this is the best possible method for training young minds to think and formulate actions to create change.

Maybe there is something that the technological arts can do to create some better way for information exchange.

From Media on the Move: “Less tangible, but equally pervasive in the risk discourses, is the alleged danger text-messaging poses to the print literacy of the young ‘thumb tribes’. With its 160 characters, it invites unorthodox forms of spelling that are clearly at odds with the proficiencies taught at school and hence judged deficient by educational standards.”

I first noticed this when I was in China a few years ago. I would hear Chinese students or co-workers asking how to write such-and-such a character. In China texting is the norm for this next generation, and unfortunately many people will substitute equivalent characters for the correct character. I.E. Characters that phonetically sound similar, but are easier to recognize (however with a completely different meaning.)

So the effects of this are two fold, the ability to write Chinese is becoming more difficult for these texters, and the ability to write grammatically correct may become more difficult. It isn’t just the introduction of textual slang, but it is a dumbing down in literacy and writing.