Re: Impact of digital photography craze on culture not yet known, one expert thinks it could mean 'dark age'

Some "Experts" are merely dumb - others are downright idiotic.

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"Norman" <user@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:cjo0l19c3a2lqi88k7qsjob6m7svgohn56@xxxxxxxxxx
> I don't recall seeing this posted here....thought it was interesting.
> Sorry if it's a repeat.
>
>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20050925/ca_pr_on_tc/cyberfile_digital_photos
>
> Impact of digital photography craze on culture not yet known, one
> expert thinks it could mean 'dark age'
>
> ANGELA PACIENZA Sun Sep 25, 4:35 PM ET
>
> TORONTO (CP) - Did your parents keep volumes of books filled with
> embarrassing baby photos? Do you have a pic from your sweet 16? Your
> first car?
>
> Some experts think today's babies might not be so lucky now that the
> snapshot generation has gone digital.
>
> They fear that while we're taking and sharing more photos than ever,
> those memories are going to be trapped in cyber space, never captured
> on physical paper or collected in one source for future generations to
> view.
>
> Memories are being filed away on our computers and saved to CDs which
> don't have nearly the longevity of old fashioned negatives and photo
> paper. Many archivists believe the cutting-edge technology we use
> today to access these treasured memories won't be around years from
> now.
>
> "It's a fact - we will not be able to get at that stuff," said Mark
> Federman, chief strategist and professor with the McLuhan Program in
> Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto.
>
> "The research that I'm doing now, that exists on a computer that may
> be backed up onto a server, that may ultimately find its way onto a CD
> or a DVD storage device - none of those will exist 50 years from now,"
> he said.
>
> Centuries from now, historians might even be calling our time "a type
> of dark age," Federman adds.
>
> "Compared to earlier generations, very little of our cultural history
> is being recorded so that it will actually exist into the future," he
> said, pointing to centuries-old oil paintings that help tell the
> stories of our forefathers.
>
> "Unless we take our digital media and put it forward (in a traceable
> way) then the people in the future will have no record of us in the
> way that physical records have come forward to us . . . what that
> essentially means is that we're forgotten."
>
> But new dad Dave Ullrich isn't so grim about the future. He's
> optimistic that new technologies will allow for proper archiving so
> his nine-month-old daughter will be able to revisit her childhood long
> after she's a senior citizen.
>
> Since his daughter's birth, Ullrich has been snapping digital pictures
> and posting them to a personal website for friends and family to
> peruse. He admits that with every passing month mom and dad have
> become a bit lazier about updating the site but maintains his bundle
> of joy will have a record of her childhood.
>
> "We're taking, probably, as many pictures but they tend to just go on
> the hard drive and sit there," said the Toronto software developer.
>
> "It's more about archiving."
>
> Does he worry that 50 years from now his daughter or his grandchildren
> may not be able to read some of the disks?
>
> "What I'm expecting is that forms of displaying digital photography
> and archiving will become more user friendly," he said.
>
> Besides, he figures that since his family's memories are a digital
> format they'll be easy to transfer into whatever new format emerges.
>
> Still, others warn about yet another problem with the digital photo
> revolution - trashing and self-editing photos.
>
> Stephen Bulger, who runs the Stephen Bulger Gallery in downtown
> Toronto, says photos that we hate today might become prized
> possessions in 20 years.
>
> Photographers always go back to their negatives and find "hidden
> gems," says Bulger, who frequently hosts exhibits of historical
> photographs.
>
> He wonders about the cultural effects of shutterbugs editing as they
> go along.
>
> "What's happened over and over again is that people using analogue
> (film and paper), invariably there's something that causes them to go
> back to a particular roll of film they shot and somewhere on that
> contact *** there's a photograph that didn't strike them as being
> very significant until well after the photograph was taken," said
> Bulger.
>
> "They can print it now because it's still there and it's as good as
> the day it was made."
>
> He recalled one photographer who, while putting together a
> retrospective of his work, found some beautiful works in 50-year-old
> contact sheets.
>
> "Some that he took in the 1950s he didn't print until 2000," said
> Bulger.
>
> Had those photos been on CD, the quality would have deteriorated
> significantly to the point of being unreadable.
>
> "CDs don't last forever," Bulger warns. "It won't last as long as film
> will last."
>
> He suggests people copy data from one CD to a new one at least every
> five years to prevent data loss.
>
> So is there a surefire solution for people who want to make sure baby
> photos last long enough for future grandchildren to enjoy?
>
> Most experts will advise to print as well as save to CD or DVD but the
> debate continues.
>
> - ---
> Norman
> Please reply via group. E-mail ID does not exist.


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