Literate - Visible - Technical - Audible

An often overlooked factor of the integration of media with life is the ability to analyze technology as both the process through which it is created as well as the implications of is use and inclusion in daily activities.  Following the first wave of digital technologies with the turn of the millennium that introduced computers to normalized household usage, one could consider the current decade as a second wave in digital history that marks full normalization and mobilization of computer devices.  What was once script on a screen that requires human interpretation has since developed into computers that resemble and perform like human, simultaneously simplifying and complexifying one’s day, which humans become increasingly dependent on. In Aurature at the End(s) of Electronic Literature, John Cayley focuses on reading and how electronic technologies have reduced the need for humans to read, and potentially the need to learn how to read, because we have electronics that read to us.  Due to the political history of literacy, which the privilege supplied potential for agency and liberation, this conversation brings into question the possibility for a new way to further marginalize groups and reinforce political hierarchies as a means for systematic power distribution.  Similar to how visible signs of wealth, in terms of a physical human body, has shifted from what we would now call “obesity” signifying wealth through an excess of source for food in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to thin and lean bodies signifying wealth through access to expensive diet programs and fitness routines in the twenty-first century, would this be the fate of technology?  For instance, could being literacy, which is known to be and have been a privilege in American history since the founding of the United States, become replaced by computers reading for the wealthy and making literacy obsolete?

OTTARAS’s LONG RONG SONG could be interpreted as a response to this complication connection between literacy, the audible, and technology.  Through both visual and aural cues, the spectator can experience a desire to make sense of the words, whether to relate them to words that sound similar or to seek an explanation for their order or arrangement in relation to one another.  As words, many of which are unfamiliar to the English language, are flashed on the screen, they are simultaneously pronounced by a computerized voice. The first part, in which words are introduced and become visibly overlapped, and eventually indistinguishable, sets up the stage for the viewer.  This is as if to inform the spectator that the words themselves don’t have significance on their own, but only through their combination can we find some meaning or something relatable. It could also signify the reduction in visibility of words or literature and its replacement by an audible voice that supplies all of the necessary information.  Does the video progress until the visuals are no longer necessary? Do the shapes become art without readable meaning?

Another approach that connects with contemplation over human connection and dependency on machine can be found in Hito Steyerl's "How Not to Be Seen." This video art acknowledges advancements in technology as a means to become invisible, less human, less physical through computerization. While seemingly playful, a computer-generated voice takes us on a proactive path toward monotony and might make you wonder if it's better to disappear.