Re: Fear Of Technology

[Mark Sottilaro <mark@cdm.sfai.edu> (by way of Kim Flint)]

Several months ago, Brian Eno did the back page of Wired magazine.  In
the article he described a session in a new fully digital recording
studio, with a software driven "board" as the least creative time he's
spent in a recording studio, ever.  The gear was so infinitely
programmable, he was never able to become "intimate" with the gear.
With infinite possibilities, one can explore forever and end up with
nothing in the end.

I've been doing the digital audio/midi thing for a long, long time... in
chip years, that is, and to me it's very, very seductive to want "the
new toy."  The problem is that as soon as you become comfortable with
the tool, version 2.0 comes out, so you learn that, and then another
company comes out with something that's supposedly better, so you'd
better buy that and then... before you know it, you're out of money and
haven't created ANYTHING WHICH IS WHY YOU GOT THE THING IN THE FIRST
PLACE!!

I do computer based 2 and 3D animation, and interactive work as well, so
after a while it can become pretty obvious how overwhelmed one can
become.  BUT I KEEP ON GETTING THE NEW TOYS AND LEARNING THEM, I'M
ADDICTED TO TECHNOLOGY!  HA HA HA HA HA!  But I'm getting better.  I
also think that soon a time will come where new features will become
less and less important, and usability and performance/price will become
issues.  Cheaper hardware.  Less RAM hungry software.  I'm boycotting
Adobe Premiere 5.1 (video editing software) due to its more convoluted
interface and poor performance.  Version 4 does everything I want it to
do for now.  This can become problematic when working with other's, but
I'll fall off that bridge when I get to it.  Sometimes you just have to
say, "No."  Sometimes the lo-tech way is the way to go.

Mark Sottilaro
Multimedia Specialist
Center for Digital Media
San Francisco Art Institute
(415) 711-7020 ext. 4411