There is a paradoxical claustrophobia about the vastness of the internet. The world is condensed into a smartphone. We talk about being glued to our screens because it seems as though when we are online, we are unable to look around, outside or beyond. Donning a VR headset immerses you in an expansive new world, but completely cuts you off from those standing nearby.
Alongside this physical constriction there is an emotional flattening. The online environment of social media, news headlines and meme culture does not allow for nuance or context. Everything is stripped back to bare essentials. There is no room for the luxury of explanation or exposition.
‘Because Internet – Understanding How Language Is Changing’ by Gretchen McCulloch takes a look at how language is evolving to deal with the new digital terrain.There are great discussions on text speak, emojis and memes. I didn’t realise, for example, that putting a full stop at the end of a text can imply passive aggression. I have been doing it for years, thinking that I was just being over precise.
Language itself will be fine. It cannot help but evolve to meet the demands of each new generation. Or rather, each new generation cannot help but repurpose language to find a way to express themselves.
But we should be mindful nevertheless of the new digital terrain in which our self expression is playing out. With fewer words and less time in which to make a point or grab your attention, we are necessarily going to pump up the linguistic volume. Sentiment is condensed and flattened as texts move online. Emotions are emptied out.
I have been thinking about these dynamics over the summer. ‘Poetry Please’ is the result, exploring the contrasting language forms of books and bytes. Poems that meander slowly and lyrically on the printed page are condensed into instant quotes. The art of poetry is reduced not to prose but to text.
I have been spending the summer learning a new craft. I have been visiting the wonderful Make Space workshops in Cambridge to learn how to use their CNC Model Mill and CNC Router. CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control, and means that the machines drill and rout based on 3d plans drawn up on a computer. So is this really craft? I don’t know, possibly not. Undoubtedly though, it is another example of technology augmenting skills that would have been done entirely by hand only a few decades ago.
What I have liked so much about this experience is not only the learning of a new skill (enjoyable, challenging and frustrating in equal measure) but the physicality of working with wood (ok, I admit it, mostly MDF) and largely swapping the computer screen for the noise, smell and clunkiness of a machine the size of a kitchen table.
The pieces that I have been making are lettering carved into wood for a new project in Middlesbrough this October (details to follow in a future post). To see them emerge from the machine gives a buzz of achievement, even if the machine did most of the work.
It is becoming clear to me from the many conversations that I have had over the summer (new podcast episodes coming soon) that all tech revolutions, whether the printing press, steam engine or motor car profoundly change on our lives. This much is a truism. The problems always seem to arise once the initial delight and novelty wear off and are replaced by exploitation and ubiquity. It seems that we struggle to get the balance right.
To put it another way, for better or for worse we are stuck inside our physical bodies and we experience the world through our senses. At some deep and intangible level we need to be grounded in, and connected to, the world around us and the earth that we share. All technologies are bolt-ons to this and they are successful to the extent that they enhance and complement our sensory selves. Once they take us away from the essence of who we are, then we are heading for trouble.
