ELECTRONICS

As I write this on my computer keyboard, I think back to a time - not so long ago - when I wrote on a typewriter. Computers had not yet reached the masses. Cell phones did not exist.

As easy as it is to lament the loss of privacy (cell phones) and the deluge of information (computers/Internet) that new technologies have brought into being over the last three or four decades, it is just as easy to find pleasurable things to say about these machines.

The yin and yang of existence applies to everything, it seems, large or small.

Every time my teenage daughter is out for the evening, I am thankful that she has a cell phone.

Writing on the computer is easier and quieter than the “typer” (to use Bukowski’s phrase). The Internet is a wonder of human knowledge, curiosity, nonsense, and minutiae. Software programs like iPhoto and Garageband allow me to work with photos and music in ways unimaginable a few decades before.

We all pay a price for this of course. As an artist I am all too aware of the cheapening and dilution of certain aesthetic experiences that have been part of the worlds of painting and sculpture for centuries. Some of the intimacy, the seriousness, the erudition, the magic (for lack of a better word) has been lost in the ever-swelling tidal wave of electronically transmitted words and images that surrounds us now.

There is also the sense at present that a new global society is taking shape before our eyes. We become more aware of how much suffering exists everywhere but also how much we all have to share and how many opportunities exist to better ourselves and our world. Greed, violence and power-mongering still rule on the blue ball - but at least the electronics are available for all...........for now.