Self Limitation

In his article, The Technology and the Society, Raymond Williams discusses the invention and eventual widespread use of the television in our society. The demand for a way to network entertainment, news, and art that seemed to drive the development of television still is the driving force behind many technological innovations today. The technology of our time, as Williams mentions, can never be ideal to our wants or needs. I agree with this and still see it today as I'm sure Williams saw in his era. Our resources and advancement are almost never at the level that can most efficiently broadcast everything in the way we would like to have it be broadcasted.

This issue of technological competence is really only a drawback for news and entertainment, rather than art. In fact, a shortage of material or easy production processes can bring forth a truer sense of artistic vision I think. Stan Brakhage has a series of video consisting of entirely organic materials adhered to film. He literally took parts of his environment and combined them in such a way as to give the viewer the feeling of flight and frenzied movement.

Probably due to my history with graphic design, the Adobe Creative Suite, and the like, I always found my artistic needs to be synonymous with my technological needs. I was inspired by those able to separate the use of tech and their creative prowess.