Art
Beauty Embedded In History
Pencils to Pixels:
The Connection Between “Pencils to Pixels” and Art History
Before researching the history of art, we read and analyzed Dennis Baron’s “Pencils to Pixels”. In this piece, Baron describes the events and technology that led to the popularization of writing. He considers how writing has influenced technological advancements such as pencils and computers. Art is similar to writing because new technology such as Photoshop has been invented to enhance art. We are so familiar with these technologies we consider them as a natural part of our lives. Technology has made both art and writing more accessible to a wider range of people which allows for these rhetorical purposes to change at a quicker pace. In past time periods, art and writing were only accessible to those of higher status and wealth. The limited technology of time periods such as Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations made the spreading of art and writing more difficult since less people had access to it. Additionally, the purpose of art has evolved throughout time because it was originally meant for practical purposes such as the crafting of materials into useful tools. Most art nowadays is more for entertainment purposes and technology allows art to be created with little artistic skill necessary.
Overview of Dennis Baron’s “Pencils to Pixels”
In the piece “Pencils to Pixels”, Dennis Baron describes the importance that writing as a technology has had on the world. As writing gradually became integrated in our lives, this brought forth the need for a new literacy technology. Literacy technologies are not just automatically incorporated into our culture at one point; they must go through multiple stages to gain acceptance. When writing was first innovated, traditionalist thinkers such as Plato resisted the technology because they thought it was unnatural and feared it would weaken human memory. However, many supporters of writing predicted the positive effects of how writing would forever change our lives which it certainly has. Even though we normally assume that writing was originally used to transcribe speech, historians have discovered inscriptions that use it for other purposes such as business transactions, land sales and tax accounts. Writing technology had introduced a form of communication that was permanent and eventually influenced how the colloquial language has been used. The acceptance of writing has been greatly influenced by the technology that makes it more accessible to us. A small percentage of Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations were literate because of the limited access to writing technology such as clay tablets and papyrus. With the creation new technologies such as cheaper paper and the printing press, this literacy technology became more accessible to a wider group. Other technologies such as the typewriter, pencils, pens and the computer have helped transform the purpose for writing too.
The Research of Our Rhetorical Purpose
Throughout the past weeks, we have been researching the rhetorical purposes of art history. By dividing the history of art into five main time periods, we are able to see how art has changed over time. We also gathered information on the ways technology has changed art history and the rhetorical purposes of it. We decided to focus on rhetorical purposes of art history such as its influence on expression and ideal beauty. Our research has showed us how much technology influenced artists and the messages they send in through their art. Technological advancements over the time periods have greatly shifted the rhetorical purposes found in art and the ways art is communicated to audiences.