you can love the digital world, but use it right!

Numerical Representation. Modularity. Quantification. It is still like magic to me how the digital world takes information from our real world and turns the information into portable, editable, and intangible files. I do not get how the moment I was with my sister was captured into a camera, converted into a series of 0’s and 1’s, and managed to play back on my computer. It is ridiculous to think that when I click on a movie sequence to be black and white, a bunch of mathematical formulas are at work to get rid of the color in my video. It is genius how digital media pixelates and quantifies the real world, because I can hardly tell when the real, continuous world becomes the digital, pixilated world.
However, it is different capturing life onto digital media than creating digital files from digital media. These include drawing things with Photoshop, drawing animations on Flash, or making models in AutoCAD. Digitally created files are less informative about the creator of a media since it is in the nature for digitally produced media to be easily reproducible by anybody. For example, if you ask a group of people to draw a line six inches long in AutoCAD, everyone’s lines will look identical. This line in AutoCAD was meant to be easily reproducible. One simply would need to type “L”, click enter, and type in “@6,0.” However, if you ask a group of people to draw a line six inches long on a piece of paper, everyone’s lines will look very different. Some people will have lines that are not so straight at certain areas, some will have really thick line weights, some will have tapered ends, and so forth. There are infinite ways in which humans could draw that line. The hand-drawn line is not easily reproduced like the AutoCAD line. For this reason, the hand-drawn line is more informative and unique to the creator of the line than is the AutoCAD line. If the line is wavy, one could suppose that maybe the creator was nervous. Or if the line is dark, one could suppose the creator maybe was really trying to emphasize this particular line.
So the question now is, when is it more appropriate to capture real life work digitally and when is it more appropriate to create files digitally? It all depends on if the creator is trying to reveal himself in his work or not. If one is trying to portray a part of himself as an art project, capturing real life work digitally would make sense. His real life work would be undeniably his own, and clearly not reproducible by any other artist. However, if one were trying to convey a design clearly and articulately, making a file digitally would be appropriate, since revealing information about the creator himself is not the focus. The design’s information is the focus. It does not matter so much that people realize the work was done uniquely by the creator. It matters more that people get the information. So the next time you choose a media to create your work, whether you decide to use a photograph for a poster or decide to make a graphic for a poster, ask yourself what you are trying to reveal – outside information or something about yourself?