MudLog

I spent the Thanksgiving break being sick. I got sick a couple days earlier, not because the Lions got their ass kicked by none other than Joey Harrington, the Quarterback (who was drafted as a first round pick) they traded to the Dolphins for a future sixth-round pick. I love the Lions, but every year they manage to fuck up worse than the year before. Last week Michigan lost to Ohio State, which was a real heartbreak, but Yale killed Harvard, so in a way that made the loss less painful (especially with the MIT streakers and all. No it wasn’t me.) But enough with the football…

The past few mornings, I’ve been coughing up some funky stuff. It’s disgusting. No need to describe it except to say it’s amazing how something so unnatural can be produced by my own body. I say it’s unnatural because its color is highlighter green. I haven’t taken biology since high school, but how can some natural process create such artificial color? Maybe this is because my body no longer consists of natural things. Everything I eat is artificial. I don’t really know what is in the stuff I eat. I eat student food, under a student budget. This means I eat things I wouldn’t normally, just because it’s fast and cheap. This is the only place where the don’t ask, don’t tell policy works. Mmm…don’t you just love the burrito of mystery?

Where am I going with this? I wanted to tell this story, because I thought it would be a clever way to come up with another reason for why computers and digital work is important to art and design, but I don’t think I’ll be doing a good job. Remember I’m still sick. Thinking makes my head spin.

Over the years, I’ve met many artists and designers who resist the use of computers and technology to influence work. They bitch and moan every time they have to use a computer. Normally, I would ignore them and not waste my time, but the problem is, most of these people are stubborn professors who are in the position to influence students excited about computers and technology. I don’t understand why they are so critical. I can only assume it’s because they fear the unknown, and this thing called the computer and the internet confuses them to no end. This is why I think future artists and designers need to skip art school and come to MIT instead.

Now the analogy. Computers and technologies are much like the artificial products we eat. Whether you like it or not, it is already within us. It’s okay if you don’t like it, but resisting and rejecting computers and technologies is like being an organic preaching hippie. But these days organic food isn’t even organic. It’s what hipster Williamsburg girls eat at Whole Foods at Union Square.