Chris’s post is here.
Hi Chris,
When it came to this task, I didn’t think twice and instinctively opted for handwriting, a communication medium I have loved since childhood. However, your post on the manual process of producing text via potato stamping was eye-opening.
As you walked us through your robust process of creating the simple text of your name, it reinforced Bolter’s idea that the value of electronic writing systems lies in making “structure a permanent feature of the text. The writer can think globally about the text,” (pg. 30, 2001) a trait not afforded by this stamping process (but still possible in a limited way via handwritten text).
Writing is a way of thinking for me, but even with a complete set of 26 potato letters ready on hand, I would not be able to express nor organize my thoughts adequately via this technology, except perhaps as a final (tedious) representation medium. As Bolter mentions, “the writer is thinking and writing in terms of verbal units or topics, whose meaning transcends their constituent words” (pg. 29, 2001), let alone individual letters, as is the case here.
Like you, I have always considered block printing more of an artistic or textile printing endeavour, so seeing its role and fit in the jigsaw puzzle of developing text technologies was interesting. In addition, your comparative analysis of manual versus mechanized printing processes was informative, and I agree with you on the far-reaching consequences of the latter.
Most of all, I appreciate the parallel you drew between your process and that of students in maker spaces, reinforcing Bolter’s (and somewhat McLuhan’s) idea of remediation: “a process of cultural competition between or among technologies” (pg. 23, 2001). Clearly, 3D printers win over hand-carved potato text blocks any day, but it was an interesting reminder to think of our maker tools as communication technologies as well.
Reference:
Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.