20.560 scholarly works of art

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 20, No. 560.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
  www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

         Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:34:42 +0100
         From: Del Thomas Ph D <deltom_at_comcast.net>
         Subject: Re: 20.559 scholarly works of art

WM,

Your comments parallel a long standing debate I have watched. It is
typified by a question in a post
on the teach sociology list, "who invented sociology?" Also, when
we were taking our son on college visits
I asked the a Dean about the role of critical thinking at the
University. He answered, there are some questions
for which there is only one answer, such as who discovered America.
As you suggest the lever exists before we recognize, label it and or
write a dissertation. Or we might discard, outlaw or disappear
the new technology as cheating, unnatural....etc. These are
examples of the name calling that is used against new technology,
such as the tube,
(Renoir is reported to have said "Without tubes of paint, there would
have been no Impressionism.") word processing and digital art.

Digital technology is just beginning. The US medical system not
withstanding, like the tube, digital technology can increase
opportunities for illumination. That is when we allow it.
There is an interesting twist to the authenticity issues. Richard
Powers, author of The Echo Maker claims that it is more authentic, more direct
to use word recognition instead of a type writer or word processor
for his writing.

Best

Del
Received on Tue Apr 10 2007 - 05:57:50 EDT