Loss of Depth
I inherited an SLR minolta camera when I was 13. It should have been as old as me (1990). The photometer of the camera was not working and there was no feedback loop for the camera to tell me when to adjust the aperture or the shutter speed to get the intended result. So till I saw the developed photograph I had no way of knowing how my calculations would turn out. As a result I developed an acute awareness of what impact, factors like light, atmospheric conditions (heat or cold) would make on the photograph and how I could arrive at the desired result by adjusting aperture or shutterspeed.
With the advent of the digital cameras all these skills became worthless. You could see the final result the photograph along with the changes you made on the settings from the LCD display. This change enabled all unskilled to become as good as the skilled. What I miss is that acute awareness or oneness I uses to feel with my surroundings and the forecasts I made about the impact, the change I could influence by changing shutterspeed or aperture and the sheer triumph I felt when the forecast and the change I intend came true. The upside is all these skills became democratised and ordinary. Before the advent of excel mathematical geniuses and chart makers were highly regarded for their skills. Excel democratised mathematics and visual display of information a skill that can be acquired by all and sundry.
Personal loss and wonder of a selected group became collective gain and mundane utility of the masses.
A story of triumph, feels like a class war victory. Is it really so?
Who benefits when people use excel, who benefits when people use Canon or Nikon digital SLR camera? Who benefits when people use photosharing sites like flickr or facebook or picasa or Twitter
That question is discussed in Life – How the World became a corporation and how to take it back. What I want to discuss is the loss of depth, the sense of wonder, the sense of oneness that happened as a result of the demorcatisation of the skillset. And when generations go by you lose knowledge even the existence of such skill sets and pass on to a different mindset altogether. That is discussed in ‘Avatar’ by James Cameroon.
When I look at Florence Nightingale’s charts which was used to tell the Monarch that soldiers were dying more of unhygienic living conditions than from wounds from war, I can pitch the skill of Hans Rosling, the celebrity who statistician who does magic with charts on TED stages in the light it belongs. (Nightingale did not have any software or excel)
Similar depth can be experienced when you watch Anupam Mishra’s TED talk
