This suggests that the only things that qualify as art are things that can be made by hand.
So let’s flip that a little and talk about writing. A perfect turn of phrase still exists when you type something rather than write it out by hand. The ability the evoke emotion through shared experiences, to evoke empathy or sympathy by telling a story, to bring joy and satisfaction through a literary tale still exist when the medium is “digital”.
What a lot of people talk about when they talk about ebooks vs physical books is the loss of physical sensations like the smell of books or the feel of turning a page. I will not say (as an avid reader) that this tactile feedback isn’t missing from the digital book experience, and I won’t say that it’s not an enjoyable part of the experience.
But I will say that just because we can recognize that trade off between the two doesn’t mean that the one that came after is lessened as art. Because if that were true it would have been “lessened” by going from spoken story to written story and I don’t think that’s true. It was changed. Some of the experience changed with it. But that’s not the same thing.
This suggests that the only things that qualify as art are things that can be made by hand.
So let’s flip that a little and talk about writing. A perfect turn of phrase still exists when you type something rather than write it out by hand. The ability the evoke emotion through shared experiences, to evoke empathy or sympathy by telling a story, to bring joy and satisfaction through a literary tale still exist when the medium is “digital”.
What a lot of people talk about when they talk about ebooks vs physical books is the loss of physical sensations like the smell of books or the feel of turning a page. I will not say (as an avid reader) that this tactile feedback isn’t missing from the digital book experience, and I won’t say that it’s not an enjoyable part of the experience.
But I will say that just because we can recognize that trade off between the two doesn’t mean that the one that came after is lessened as art. Because if that were true it would have been “lessened” by going from spoken story to written story and I don’t think that’s true. It was changed. Some of the experience changed with it. But that’s not the same thing.