The Progression of the Medium Change between the Painting with the Digi

The Progression of the Medium Change between the Painting with the Digital Image Albert Borgmann, in his Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life, devises the â€Å"device paradigm† as an illustration of the pattern into which the stuff that defines technological existence falls. Even though Borgmann writes his book in 1984, it is of value to examine the paradigm in context of current developments of technological society. It becomes a question of whether the device paradigm is still applicable to the current technological setting, or if it is truer now than even before. It is thus taken into consideration in light of the specific instance of the thing, as Borgmann uses it, that is a painting prior to the modern period. The specific thing of a painting is contrasted to the technological device of a digital image. The progression of the medium change between the painting to the digital image will be examined as well as the skill it takes to produce them. Availability of these is observed, along with the consequence of such a metamorphosis in the essence of the thing and device. First, however, Borgmann states the thing as a pretechnological object in the Heideggerian sense. The thing gathers the fourfold, being earth, sky, mortals, and divinity. Thus it is something which reveals the world in all its aspects. In this case, a painting of the medieval times is one which is created by a master. The master has undergone a lifetime of training under another master, and the business of the arts is under the guild system. A single painting would take many weeks to complete, and all instruments in its creation are known instinctively to the master. The pigments are hand ground and prepared, as are the brushes and th... ...into a commodity of affluence, and that is what produces disengagement. Affluent commodities disengage in their diversion from focal things, which result in detachment from reality and detachment from the world. As the world is revealed through technological devices, it is no longer a world of humanity, but a world of technology and its devices. Such an existence deteriorates into loneliness and depression, both of which are detrimental to the being of humanity. In truth, it can be said, by line of the preceding argument, that technological existence may well bring about the extinction of the human race, unless it is counteracted. This counteraction, may, as Borgmann claims, lie in a counterbalance of focal things and practices. Works Cited Borgmann, Albert. Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1984.