1. Explore the phrase “the features of print become the features of society”. Why did this happen? How were the features of print the features of society?
Due to the advent of print, information in books can be duplicated with precision, allowing consistent content to be made available to people from all walks of life. Constant exposure to the same set of information creates a pattern of learning that extols the same ideas, ultimately creating an unconscious grouping of individuals that are more than likely to belong to the same school of thought. This pattern of consuming ideas and having a change in the way people think reinforces this group mentality, which is the cause of group behavior, social norms, and status quo.
After the adoption of the printing press, the spread of knowledge in society transcended social class - allowing more groups of people the opportunity to read and learn from books than ever before. This shook the very foundations of society - since there is now equal opportunities to obtain information previously only accessible to the more financially-sound. This has reduced the gap between the rich and the poor, empowering the latter and giving them a greater sense of belonging, as well as a lower sense of dissatisfaction and bitterness, and provided a broader range of readers access to knowledge.
Elizabeth Eisenstein - well known for her work on the history of early printing - identifies two long term effects of the invention of printing. She claims that print created a sustained and uniform reference for knowledge as well as allowing for comparison between incompatible views.
Print was also responsible in changing the nature of reading in society, for e.g:
In addition, the invention of print has also changed the occupational structure in European cities, for instance: printers emerged as a new group of artisans for whom literacy was essential, although the much more labour-intensive occupation of the scribe naturally declined.
2. Trace (give examples, at least 3) of the effects or legacies of print in technology we use today. Discuss.
Cut and paste
The movable type provided higher levels of efficiency and ease in the transmitting and sharing of information, making our lives easier as many labour-intensive processes were either totally eliminated or simplified. The cost and effort in creating repeatable tasks were reduced as well, due to print making duplication and multiplication possible.
The effects of ‘cut and paste’ were not just seen in the changes of society and their power to knowledge - they influenced other cultural genres as well. In particular, Andy Warhol, an American artist who was a leading figure in a well-known visual art movement (“Pop Art”), used the idea of replication widely in his art works.
The trend of “ripping”, “splicing” and “sampling” in music creation is yet another showcase of the impact of the movable type’s “cut and paste” effect. Music artistes and DJs were quick to adopt this technology, effectively spawning new genres of music such as rap, trip hop, break-beat and electronica.
Birth of typography
What began as an attempt to create uniformity in the aesthetic value of letters and alphabets, by way of arrangement and typesetting, as well as other elements that constitute typography today, has led to the birth of the art form that is typography.
We are no longer restricted to the usage of only certain types of fonts - what with the hundreds and thousands of different types existing today. In fact, it is easy to create and design new fonts these days, while it was definitely not a luxury before, and even slightly after the birth of the printing press.
The attention and importance placed on fonts and their uses in print has brought about typography as an art form, which is evolving even in modern contexts. These days, different fonts are considered in the use of different print mediums. Fonts also have gained a personality of their own; oftentimes conveying different moods suitable to reflect certain situations and feelings. Since the choice of font creates such an impact on how people perceive it, great care was taken to pair them with a represented product or material. In fact, many modern prestigious brands have sought to create their own “luxury” fonts to achieve a sense of exclusivity for their brand.
Resolution
The invention of print has also brought about the pursuit of better screen resolutions. Screen technology has advanced to achieve the aim of simulating an increasingly realistic work interface, across various devices . Take the latest iPhone/Macbook retina display for example - as the name suggests, it aims to imitate what the human eye can perceive, giving the impression that what you see on the device’s screen is as accurate as the tangible product. Another example of this is the Kindle e-book reader, which promises to provide an identical experience as reading and flipping through a real book.
Chart the progress / evolution of print of mere words, to addition of images, to multimedia
Photos have evolved from black and white and poor image quality as compared to today. In the past, most photos are in black and white and are only on film. Image quality could not be enhanced as it is like today (today, we have Photoshop, camera settings/effects to bring out the results of the photos you want and other programs to edit your photos, etc).
In today’s society, there are many tools to capture a good photo. For different effects in a photo, we have Lomo camera, polaroid, fish eye, toy camera and etc. Photographers nowadays have made use of the different ways to capture a good photo, not forgetting the old ways to do so (polaroid and film cameras)
Due to the advent of print, information in books can be duplicated with precision, allowing consistent content to be made available to people from all walks of life. Constant exposure to the same set of information creates a pattern of learning that extols the same ideas, ultimately creating an unconscious grouping of individuals that are more than likely to belong to the same school of thought. This pattern of consuming ideas and having a change in the way people think reinforces this group mentality, which is the cause of group behavior, social norms, and status quo.
After the adoption of the printing press, the spread of knowledge in society transcended social class - allowing more groups of people the opportunity to read and learn from books than ever before. This shook the very foundations of society - since there is now equal opportunities to obtain information previously only accessible to the more financially-sound. This has reduced the gap between the rich and the poor, empowering the latter and giving them a greater sense of belonging, as well as a lower sense of dissatisfaction and bitterness, and provided a broader range of readers access to knowledge.
Elizabeth Eisenstein - well known for her work on the history of early printing - identifies two long term effects of the invention of printing. She claims that print created a sustained and uniform reference for knowledge as well as allowing for comparison between incompatible views.
Print was also responsible in changing the nature of reading in society, for e.g:
- Critical reading: due to the fact that texts were finally more accessible to the general audience, critical reading emerged because people are given the choice to form their own opinions on texts (and become opinion leaders themselves).
- Creative reading: printing allowed people to read texts and interpret them creatively, often in very different ways than the author intended.
- Extensive reading: print allowed for a wide range of texts to be made available, hence previous methods of intensive reading of texts from the start to the finish, began to change. With texts becoming more readily available, people started reading on particular topics or chapters of their choice/interests, allowing for much more extensive reading on a wider range of topics. The birth of fiction writing is one good example.
- Private reading: Rise to individualism - Before print, reading was often a group event, where one person would read to a group of people.With print, literacy rose, as did availability of texts, hence reading became more of a solitary pursuit.
In addition, the invention of print has also changed the occupational structure in European cities, for instance: printers emerged as a new group of artisans for whom literacy was essential, although the much more labour-intensive occupation of the scribe naturally declined.
2. Trace (give examples, at least 3) of the effects or legacies of print in technology we use today. Discuss.
Cut and paste
The movable type provided higher levels of efficiency and ease in the transmitting and sharing of information, making our lives easier as many labour-intensive processes were either totally eliminated or simplified. The cost and effort in creating repeatable tasks were reduced as well, due to print making duplication and multiplication possible.
The effects of ‘cut and paste’ were not just seen in the changes of society and their power to knowledge - they influenced other cultural genres as well. In particular, Andy Warhol, an American artist who was a leading figure in a well-known visual art movement (“Pop Art”), used the idea of replication widely in his art works.
The trend of “ripping”, “splicing” and “sampling” in music creation is yet another showcase of the impact of the movable type’s “cut and paste” effect. Music artistes and DJs were quick to adopt this technology, effectively spawning new genres of music such as rap, trip hop, break-beat and electronica.
Birth of typography
What began as an attempt to create uniformity in the aesthetic value of letters and alphabets, by way of arrangement and typesetting, as well as other elements that constitute typography today, has led to the birth of the art form that is typography.
We are no longer restricted to the usage of only certain types of fonts - what with the hundreds and thousands of different types existing today. In fact, it is easy to create and design new fonts these days, while it was definitely not a luxury before, and even slightly after the birth of the printing press.
The attention and importance placed on fonts and their uses in print has brought about typography as an art form, which is evolving even in modern contexts. These days, different fonts are considered in the use of different print mediums. Fonts also have gained a personality of their own; oftentimes conveying different moods suitable to reflect certain situations and feelings. Since the choice of font creates such an impact on how people perceive it, great care was taken to pair them with a represented product or material. In fact, many modern prestigious brands have sought to create their own “luxury” fonts to achieve a sense of exclusivity for their brand.
Resolution
The invention of print has also brought about the pursuit of better screen resolutions. Screen technology has advanced to achieve the aim of simulating an increasingly realistic work interface, across various devices . Take the latest iPhone/Macbook retina display for example - as the name suggests, it aims to imitate what the human eye can perceive, giving the impression that what you see on the device’s screen is as accurate as the tangible product. Another example of this is the Kindle e-book reader, which promises to provide an identical experience as reading and flipping through a real book.
Chart the progress / evolution of print of mere words, to addition of images, to multimedia
Photos have evolved from black and white and poor image quality as compared to today. In the past, most photos are in black and white and are only on film. Image quality could not be enhanced as it is like today (today, we have Photoshop, camera settings/effects to bring out the results of the photos you want and other programs to edit your photos, etc).
In today’s society, there are many tools to capture a good photo. For different effects in a photo, we have Lomo camera, polaroid, fish eye, toy camera and etc. Photographers nowadays have made use of the different ways to capture a good photo, not forgetting the old ways to do so (polaroid and film cameras)
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