Writing in stone
Yesterday evening I was at the Custard Factory - waiting for my husband to finish work (for the first meeting of Birmingham Social Climbers - and maybe the last), there was a typography conference on - which included a man who was showing people how to carve lettering into stone. So of course I had a go. An hour or so later I’d produced a rather ropey looking ‘b’ in slate.
My first attempt was rather obviously a first attempt, but you could see how the whole thing could develop quite quickly. It was really satisfying, and so permenant. There’s so much potential in it. You could write something which could last for thousands of years… even after a language has become obselete - like the gilgamesh epic. My flatmate is an artist studying at BIAD - there are a lot of people working in digital media… installations with video clips etc. I wonder what their rationale is in the face of the speed of technology change. If you write it in stone, however…
So many things are lost on computers because programs go out of date and equipment changes (even data from early space missions has been mislaid in this way). The Internet could potentially make all digital art available world wide. How likely is it that the Internet will last as long as humanity? The sum of human knowledge has been pretty much destroyed on occasions through history - the fire at the library of Alexandria for example. In 500 years time will there still be an Internet?
If we wanted to pass any knowledge on to people in the future, what would that knowledge be? What should we write in stone for posterity?
All that said. I can’t get the information I need for my current project, let alone anything else. My computer has gone silent - meaning that I can’t listen to Radio Karolina, or any of my business line phone messages - which are now on said computer.
So, I have a night off from gallavanting tonight as I’ve not recovered from this bug. I need to fix the sound on the laptop. Also, I’m going to look at the printed publicity material for bog - I need to make it clearer to the layperson. And I need to watch Perfect Housewife while ignoring any cleaning that needs doing.