The Cusp - Digital, Analog, What's coming

[pico]

We are approaching the cusp of the new medium.

Digital-only photographers and digital-only media artists are about to be as shocked and humbled by a new movement as we may have been by the introduction of digital photography.

My Son is 36 years old and he is of the traditional/analog persuasion. My daughter is 24 years old and used a film camera only once and does not remember. Her world is all digital imaging. They argue like some here do! They are only 12 years separated! And yet, the daughter is about to be as shocked as any when the bio-interface ('computers' woven into the body and clothes becomes fully assimulated in 2015 and changes the life of everyone (especially those who cannot afford it) in profound ways that stretch our imagination to anticipate. Information will be plenty - like having Google in your head (actually, eyes and ears), but "knowledge" and "wisdom" will be as elusive as ever. The academics, the teachers will be challenged to realize the later in ways they cannot fathom - the changes will make the life of teaching, colleges, universities will be very difficult for years as they struggle to adapt.

IN THE MEANTIME analog photographers are enjoying the tail of the market of inexpensive film and supplies to make their craft, but there will always be film so they can carry on. Analog film photography will be fully liberated very much as the book will be soon. Each will be more expensive in terms of bits-per-page (so to speak) but precious, enduring, a special thing.

Covet the negatives you make today. In two more generations (40 years) there won't be any "old negatives" to be found by serendipity, and with luck you will be there.

Laying images onto Big Film has never been a greater joy than it is now.

~~

a not-so-old man

[ronald moravec]

I have parents in their 80`s who couldn`t learn to operate a computer under any circumstances.

They feel as if the world is passing them by and they don`t know what to do about it. I don`t think change has ever occurred this fast.

My mother-in-law can`t play a tape in her VCR. I relabeled the buttons and made up a code sheet. Still no luck.

All the above are intelligent people with degrees from top universities. SCARY.

My wife`s grandmother passed on recently. She was around when the Wright brothes made the first flight of 120 feet, and now we have been to the moon. ONE LIFETIME.

[paulr]

I'm always trying to figure out what the next generation is going to come up with that's as hard for me to wrap my head around as computers are for my parents.

"what's your problem dad, it's just time travel?!"

There's no question that things will come along that make whatever cutting edge things we're doing now (esthetic or technical) seem cozy and old fashioned. That's just the way of things. I don't like to use the word "evolution," because it implies that things are getting better or more advanced, but change is definitely a constant.

And I don't think traditional photographic materials are going to disappear. Individual ones will (as they always have), and think we're already in a time of great upheaval as the landscape shifts. But the materials are just moving from the mainstream to the specialty market. Someone is going to be making them as long as someone's using them. I have a friend who makes daguerrotypes, and others working with just about every alternative process. These are all "obsolete" processes, if you judge things by the mainstream. But the materials are around and as good as ever. They just don't happen to made by Kodak--which is probably a good thing, because god knows how long Kodak will be around.

[Ralph Barker]

paulr said, " . . . because god knows how long Kodak will be around."

I think I disagree, Paul. Isn't it obvious the Devil is in charge at Kodak? ;-)

[paulr]

you could be right, but i always assumed the devil would be a better businessman.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast.

The slow one now will later be fast.

As the present now will later be past.

The order is rapidly fadin'.

And the first one now will later be last.

For the times they are a-changin'.

----
B. Dylan, 1963

[Gene Crumpler]

Please, Please, no more digitial vs. Silver posts!!!!!!!

[Bruce Wehman]

"knowledge" and "wisdom" will be as elusive as ever

Add to that, “Vision.”

Back when photography was the revolutionary new technology that was going to make painting obsolete, a funny thing happened: Artists went back to their subjective roots and invented schools of art that were based not on making “likenesses” but rather on personal expression. So as photography developed and improved, painting went on to become a more vibrant and vital art form.

Today the computer is doing to image making what photography did to painting and what the printing press did to writing (and painting). And the question that we are faced with, I think, is how the ones “left behind” are going to react. Because it is those, I suspect, that will provide the content for the “Collective.” Because being plugged into a network of constant communication is simply not a state that fosters creativity.

[Guy Tal]

With a minute lifespan barely worth mentioning on a cosmic scale, we should feel fortunate to witness and know as much as we possibly can. With less than a century to live, why the obsession with doing the same thing over and over?

Guy
Scenic Wild Photography (http://www.scenicwild.com)

[Bernard Languillier]

I see the future of those medium trying to provide us with a cropped snapshot of reality becoming overwhelmingly 3 or 4 dimentional in the next 20 years.

2d medium will stick around, but they will become more and more niche applications. Nothing can beat the evocative power of 3D.

In my view, 95% of the picture taken nowadays are targetting the memory market that I mentioned above, and those will fall in the realm of 3D.

Those of us who see photography as art, will not be affected as much, but I predict that at least 30% of the current digital photography artists will have moved to a 3D medium within 20 years as well. Those of us shooting film on LF today will probably feel less attracted by those new medium, and only 10% of us will move on to 3D.

Let's check in 20 years... :-)

Cheers,
Bernard

[Brian C. Miller]

We already have a 3D medium, one which can be viewed without colored glasses or lasers. I have a couple of "toy" cameras which have multiple taking lenses, and the film is processed to produce a prism print (lenticular lens) with a 3D effect. The 3D effect is most pronounced when your subject is 6-10 feet away, with a foreground and a background. (Clik 3D (http://clik3d.com/))

I also have a kit which allows a person to create an 8x10 using just an inkjet printer. It includes five large lenticular lenses and the necessary software.

Otherwise we use the old 3D technologies, with seperate photographs and lenses (stereoscope) or else make two exposures on a single piece of paper and use colored glasses (anaglyph).

And as for 4D, I supposed that would be 3D movies.

So, what it all amounts to is that digital technology will enable us to use old technology with convenience.

[paulr]

The next big thing? Odorama.

http://www.kulture-void.com/motion/swelter_in_vogue/polyester.html

As soon as we can capture stink digitally, the medium will have arrived.

Of course we'll all have to upgrade to the scratch 'n' sniff photo ipod.

[Brian C. Miller]

Let's see, The Kentucky Fried Movie had a skit with a Feelorama theater. A fellow stood behind the patron and added the physical sensations being shown in the movie.

What I want to know, what is the medium's destination?

[paulr]

You're right. I forgot about Feelorama.
Imagine the boudoir Feelographs ...

I'm not crazy about War Feelojournalism though.

[Brian C. Miller]

You wouldn't be in business too long with the boudoir Feelographs! Sure would be fun while it lasted, though! :-D

[Richard Ide]

"You wouldn't be in business too long with the boudoir Feelographs!"

You would if you could maintain the quality.