08.02.2005

No “Dust” For Me

Occasionally while web surfing, I come across a blog entry or article that really gets me thinking. I found such an example here. After reading the post/essay a couple of times, some thoughts immediately came to mind.

One of the results of the digital age is that things can be so easily transformed. Music was one of, if not the first mediums to see its material change through natural and artificial processes. Music first changed through intentional efforts (remakes, live performances, interpretations) and through unintentional effects (aging of recording medium being a prime cause). When music progressed to albums, the music could be manipulated in various forms ranging from radio stations spinning records faster for additional ad revenue to MC's scratching records to create new beats or melodies. Now with the arrival of the digital age, physical medium has yielded to digital purity. Everything from samples to entire tracks can be digitally manipulated and changed.

Personally, I see the effort to restore and protect archives in efforts such as the BBC Creative Archive project as a positive step. While it is true that there is value and interest in how such creative works age, without protection of the original it's often impossible to restore a work back to it’s original state. It's always easier to decay something than to restore it.

Contexts and transformations in movies, photos, music, and other digitally stored art can always be approximated. As technology improves, digital data can be manipulated to provide any experience we want, from how we enjoy our art in terms of semantics and interfaces to the content of the art itself. While there will be no naturally occurring "dust", the dust can be digitally created.

Digital storage and usage provides an unparalleled opportunity for creative techniques with existing and new material never seen before. And seeing what can be done by somebody with the proper knowledge of manipulation is nothing short of amazing in my book.

Comments

Add a comment