Reading Response: The Art of Instant Gratification

For my final reading response I have chosen to read The Art of Instant Gratification by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. It's a very intriguing article which discusses the transition from tangible photography to digital photography. I chose this article because this transition has always interested me since I have always been someone who enjoys having a hard copy of my pictures, music, videos, books, etc. I also chose it because I thought I might learn a little about when different photographic technologies came about.

Overall, this article discusses a couple main points. First, it describes the way people need and want instant gratification. When Polaroid cameras were invented they became popular because they produced results faster than other cameras. Likewise, when digital cameras were invented, sales grew because not only could they produce a picture instantly but they also made it possible to send these pictures throughout the world with a click of a button. The second main point the article discusses is how modern digital images are much more susceptible to being deleted or lost than tangible photographs. Unlike years past when a chest of pictures was a treasured family keepsake, entire photo libraries of years worth of memories can be lost forever in an instant.

The ideas discussed in this article are relevant to my own practice as a media artist because they make me appreciate the technology that allows me to get instant gratification from my camera. I appreciate this because it makes it much easier for me to identify whether or not I have obtained a usable photo or video. Also, this article enforces my belief of always having a back-up hard copy of anything of importance. It has made clear the vulnerability of new technology.

Video Hardware/Software Response

My experience with the Olympus digital camera was less than what I expected it to be. It worked fine and I was satisfied with all the images I captured but I noticed flaws in the camera which affected my drift. Overall, the camera seemed to function slower than most other digital cameras I have used. Also, the screen was quite small and the button layout made it tricky to handle at first. Even though my experience wasn't great, I was still able to implement all of my image capturing strategies with this camera. In an ideal world, my digital camera of choice would respond quickly to my actions and feature an easy to use button layout paired with a large display screen.

I decided to use Final Cut Pro to edit my drift videos because I had been using the program for a couple years and wanted to get some more practice with it. I will definitely be using this program in the future.