“Taking an analog recording of a live concert,” writes one analogista, reducing it to 0’s and 1s is not unlike a root canal: by extracting the nerves, the tooth is killed in order to save it.” 

I thought it appropriate to begin my blog post with the quote above, because it adequately describes the sentiments I felt during this weeks readings. This week was about the pros and cons as well as the process of digitalizing historical records. I got a more technical “how to” feel from most of the reading. Not being entirely technologically savvy a lot of this, although interesting, was foreign to me. The main ideas, however, were not lost on me. To return to my previous point of the quote above. In regards to the cons from this new found digitalization process I felt this was a perfect summation. It seems that in the transfer of historical artifacts to a digital format much is lost. I whole heartedly see the other side of the spectrum, the benefits of these technological advances. The idea that historical information and relics are open to the public and are available despite the deterioration of time. This contribution to history should be taken advantage of, however, is our society getting too swept up in the reliance in technology. The article not only mentions these benefits but the idea of how things are lost in the use of machines to process historical information. How much is being lost versus how much is being gained by technology? There is an argument to be made for a certain laziness occurring in our society. Are we so quick to discredit the value of a human being to a machine. In the digitization process some feel so strongly in the value in the human that they do the digital recording process themselves. There is something to be said for this. Even with human digitizing there is an original essence being lost. I feel that people give technology too much credit of what it is capable of. Not even the great advancements of today can capture the physical essence of an object or sound in its original form.

In class we discussed the way humans have responded to the overwhelming presence of technology but attempting to manipulate it or gain and understanding to feel some sense of control. In the latter part of the article they talk about how to decide wether or not to carry out the digitizing process yourself. The article quotes Janet Gertz of Columbia on the topic saying “The primary argument for digitizing in-house, is that it gives the institution close control over all procedures, handling of materials, and quality of products.” This quote resonated with me because it connected so closely with the discussion in class. The human reaction to this revolution of technology that has occurred and continues to progress. We will handle it through the understanding of its inter-workings in an attempt to feel a sense of power. Is the technological era the supreme era? or is leading to a lack of artistry, creativity and the correspondence with reality? this is yet to be seen.