The readings gave me a lot of contemplation. Here are some of the points that surprised me the most
Technology was used sparingly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, refering [to] the study of the arts…But by 1860 its meanings began [to] shift to its modern usage; the word had come to mean the system of mechanical and industrial arts
According to Wikipedia, the term ‘technology’ was used to describe useful art, forms of art that is manufactured and crafted, and basically the antonym of performing/fine art.
The article also cited from another author: William Barret
“…if our civilization were to lose its techniques, all our machines and apparatus would become one vast pile of junk”
This basically applies to all of our media work right now. No matter how expensive and advance our equipment is, without the right skill and technique the content will basically be a pile of junk
It seems that ‘technique’ is not just a specific of skills towards a certain kind of machinery, but also towards the body. Marcel Mauss believes that techniques “crucial to culture and to the transmission of culture as technologies”. The way we walk, we swim is a result of techniques pass down from our ancestors. It’s effective and traditional.
As the time goes, culture is associated with the artistic or the mind. The romantics embraced culture while the industrial opposed it, labeling the two word as if in black and white, completely contrast to each other.
Culture is dynamic because,…ideas and values change, often quite quickly, over time. Older attitudes to culture may be susperseded, or they may overlap with new ideas, or the older values may re-emerge at a later time.
like culture, technology is also messy. Technology such as the internet has allowed everyone who have accessed to it to put whatever content they want, whether it might challenge other people or not.
While corporations attempted to wring new profits out of this huge entity, governments sought to impose regulations on what they saw as an ungoverned system. The latter attempt, at least was made difficult by the properties of the internet as a global network. As one of instance of the globalization process, the internet does not respect national boundaries or jurisdictions
Just to show that the internet has become a powerful entity, capable of passing the fences each country has built.
Because the reading is way too long, I couldn’t give out all the points, because it would be stagnant and boring. Do you have any points you want to point out?