Have you ever wondered why talking some ‘sense’ to some ‘humans’ are VERY difficult? As Reas emphasized, the human language is a code meant to be read understood by specific people. So in essence, if you are not part of the ‘specific people’, you will have a hard time understanding the code. This is also the same with programming languages. Each programming language has its own syntax and semantics that are meant to be understood by specific people (programmers).
As such, it is important for us to learn new languages, both human and programming languages to expand our vocabulary and understand the people around us better.
What is the Wi-Fi password?
Consider the scenario where you are at a cafe and you want to connect to the Wi-Fi. You ask the barista for the password, and they give you a string of characters that you need to enter into your device. This string of characters is the code that you need to understand in order to connect to the Wi-Fi. The barista is the person who understands the code (the Wi-Fi password) and you are the one who needs it to connect to the Wi-Fi. If you do not understand (and know) the code, you will not be able to connect to the Wi-Fi.
| Question | What is the Wi-Fi Password? |
|---|---|
| Question | What |
| Context | Wi-Fi & Password |
Digital Impermenance
Recently, I came across a post on YouTube that showed “Sand Mandalas”. This activity is a is a Tibetan Buddhist tradition involving the creation and destruction of mandalas made from colored sand. Once complete, the sand mandala’s ritualistic dismantling is accompanied by ceremonies and viewing to symbolize Buddhist doctrinal belief in the transitory nature of material life.
Sand mandalas were originally made from crushed colored stone, but present day monks use dyed white sand. They carefully draw geometric guides before applying the sand with tools like chak-pur, working in teams from the center outward. The intricate process can take weeks to complete due to the precision and detail required.
After watching the video, a thought came crossing my mind:
“Are there any impermenance in digital art?”
The reason that this question came to my mind is because digital art is often seen as permanent and unchanging. We carve out the artwork using technologies that make it “seem” as if we are manipulating the physical world, yet it is only manipulating bytes of a machine. However, just like sand mandalas, one could argue that digital art can also be impermanent. For example, digital files can be deleted, corrupted, or lost due to hardware failure. Additionally, digital art can be altered or modified by others, which can change the original intent of the artist.
In conclusion, it is difficult to determine whether digital art is truly impermanent or not. However, it is important to recognize that digital art, like all forms of art, is subject to change. In this post, I explored two branching narratives in ways we see the connection between man, machine, and (perhaps) art.