ArtTech

nextTechnology as Choice . . . that conceals or reveals experience.

Technology as Choice

Perhaps this story gets close to what I mean about technology as a choice that affects thinking and feeling, that changes what is revealed or concealed about experience.

I'm not suggesting that the actual road did or did not have hills or curves; that is, I'm not arguing that the road's physical existence depended on my experience of it; or, more strongly, that the road, and the world in which the road was embedded, was separate from my own embeddedness in the world. Nothing of the sort.

Rather, I want to recognize that the meaning the road had for me correlated to the way I chose to engage with it. That is, when I chose technology that moved my body quickly, the left-right dimension of the road presented itself to my experience. And when I chose technology that moved me more slowly, the up-down dimension became visible.

Inevitably, of course, it was my awareness of these dimensions that was most important to my day-to-day experience of the road, and of the world in which the road was a part.

That is, on days that I road my bike, the left-right dimension of the curves did not matter to me — they literally did not exist for me. And vice versa, on days when I hitched ride with my parents, the hills evaporated.

This way of talking of technology (i.e., as the choice that changes experience) is important as I teach and work as an artist — because as a frame of mind it keeps me flexible, and keeps technology on a fluid gradient, rather than freezing it into a specific tool or singular process.

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