the progression of our modes of publishing
DESCRIPTION
No Media is destroyed, only acted upon to be reborn anew with the mixtures of human kinds creativity.TRANSCRIPT
THE PRESS: NEGLECTED FACTOR IN THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY . HAROLD INNIS, 1949
“CIVILISATION HAS BEEN DOMINATED AT DIFFERENT STAGES BY
VARIOUS MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION SUCH AS CLAY, PAPYRUS,
PARCHMENT, AND PAPER PRODUCED FIRST FROM RAGS AND THEN
FROM WOOD. EACH MEDIUM HAS ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE TYPE
OF MONOPOLY OF KNOWLEDGE WHICH WILL BE BUILT AND WHICH
WILL DESTROY THE CONDITIONS SUITED TO CREATIVE THOUGHT AND
BE DISPLACED BY A NEW MEDIUM WITH ITS PECULIAR TYPE OF
MONOPOLY OF KNOWLEDGE.”Innis, Harold, The Press: A neglected factor in the economic history of the twentieth century. London: Oxford University Press, 1949, p.5
Like the threads of a spiders web, beginning at the core and
extending outwards the means of publishing have over time
developed from the original founding communicative
creations of language, writing, art and music. but, instead of
being destroyed over time to be replaced by different
mediums, they have permeated every facet of human
history. Through human necessity to develop and create
these founding creations have grown within a contemporary
context to communicate more information to a wider
audience. These core creations are the keystone to all other
communicative medium that have come after.
Like the threads of a spiders web, beginning at the core and extending outwards the means of publishing have over time developed from the original founding communicative creations of language, writing, art and music. But, instead of being destroyed over time to be replaced by different mediums, they have permeated every facet of human history. Through human necessity to develop and create, these founding creations have grown within a contemporary context to communicate more information to a wider audience. These core creations are the keystone to all other communicative medium that have followed.
The voice of the masses has lead to the development and communication of self expression, concepts and ideas, that have laid the foundations for contemporary modes of publishing. Miklόs Kontra, Professor of English and Linguistics at the Hungarian Academy of Science sates that “Language cannot be frozen. It naturally evolves, borrowsand develops. Language is naturally permeable and permeated.”
Innis argues that
“the type of
monopoly of
knowledge which
will be built and
which will destroy
the conditions
suited to creative
though”, but
without language
and the ability to
express yourself,
easily and
effectively
creativity and
change cannot
flourish nor be
communicated to
the masses.
‘The possibilities born of linguistic diversity including notably the variety of concepts and forms found among different languages’. (Kontra,1999) Like Kontra, Derrida states that ‘Language is thus considered to be a representation of a more original thought. 'The message itself is not, but only represents, the absolutely creative moment'. (Dissemination, p.88).
Indeed, it is well known that the total of human knowledge
has
greatly benefitted from borrowing and learning between
and among
languages. Position this within a contemporary context and
the current digital age and the possibilities for
communication are endless.
Art, it can be said is the original form of
publishing, from the cave paintings of France to
the rock painting of Australia’s Indigenous
people. A most simplistic mode of publishing
that has continued and developed to become
prolific in its nature and in it effects on society.
Art has existed as means of communicating
concepts on a different level and unlike writing,
has not been dictated by a male class system but
is a means of expression for all. Such is the
availability of artistic expression that it has been
utilized and expanded upon right up until a
modern times.
Like the
development of
creativity within the
artistic medium of
Abstract
Expressionism.
Which is noted as
having developed
from surrealism and
cubism. It is clear
the progressive
step like nature of
art feeds from what
has been, to create
what is to come. A
tangible example
that no medium is
destroy, but
altered.
Like that of Pop
Art. A visual art
movement that
emerged in the
1950s in Britain
and the United
States. That was
the progressive
movement from
Abstract
Expression of
post World War
Two America to
the social
context of the
1950’s.
Indicating the
constant changes
within the art
medium.
Dr Dominique Collon states that early writing was
developed from using pictures to using the wedge-shaped
characters known as 'cuneiform'. Thus from art to writing
communication developed into written form But like most
significant change there are those that object. Like that of
the great thinker Plato.
“[Writing] will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own”. (Phaedrus 275a-b)
With writing has come the need to hold ideas within a
tangible medium to allow a wide spread means of
publishing information, it is creativity and necessity
that have driven the creation of writing into books for
the intellectual advancement of human kind.
Again it seems that
when Innis states,
“[Media] be displaced
by a new medium
with its peculiar type
of monopoly of
knowledge’. ( Innis,
1949) He is incorrect,
one of the greatest
inventions to affect
society has been the
printing press, driven
solely by the written
word and the
creativity of human
invention.
There is little to rival the shear affect that books
have had on all societies. Publishing has led to the
democratisation of knowledge. Writing in all
languages has spread ideas and concepts around
the world to every facet of civilisation.
Thus within the contemporary media context writing has
developed from paper to books to be again subjected to
the creativity of man. Taking the digital medium and
applying it to the ancient art of writing has lead to the
Kindle Ereader, a perfect amalgamation of communication
mediums and a testament to publishing creativity.
Music as a form of
publishing has
been in existence
since the
beginning of
civilization, for the
purposes of
entertainment or
communicating
information, like a
prayer. Not only
this basic music
techniques and
elements have
been utilized
repeatedly over
human
development.
As Mary
Wennerstrom
states in ‘Form in
Twentieth-Century
Music’, Aspects of
Twentieth-Century
Music. Music
development
revolves around
the transformation
and restatement of
initial materials.
Take the lute a
predecessor to the
modern Guitar and
a cousin to the
Sitar.
Music and its
instruments have
over time been
progressively
altered and
developed in
order to create a
new
interpretation of
an old sound or
musical idea.
Like that or the
Sitar within the
music of the
Beatles as
typically rock
orientated
performers.
Music like the
other founding
communication
mediums has
been transferred
to a digital
medium, creating
the means for
further creativity,
while maintaining
the original
characteristics of
the instrument or
music. Just like
the electric guitar
as a major
feature of popular
modern music.
Like Plato and his fear of the written word, similar problems exist
now. “The internet is at it again. We are told it is changing our brains,
our thinking, our learning. The techno-utopians are being utopian,
and it's making the men of letters anxious”. Thus is the developing
nature of media
Kontra, M (1999). Some Reflections on the Nature of Language and its Regulation. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights; Vol. 6 Issue 3, p281-288, 8pMoffat C. (2007) Art based on Popular Culture. http://www.charlesmoffat.com/ Accessed 01/02/2010 Norton, Q (2009). Is the Internet Making Us Stupid? Or is it giving us greater access to knowledge than ever before? http://www.mpiweb.org/Archive/218/60.aspx Access 01/06/2010
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