Ardi's Response to Remediation

I guess I have a different perspective on this book because I used it as the jumping off point for my thesis. It seems weird to me that it has been almost two years since I graduated from MAPC, but it was really nice to go back and revisit the ideas I felt very strongly about as a student.

The core idea in my thesis dealt with the idea of helping the book evolve. The book itself has not changed much since the invention of the printing press, whereas other media have evolved at almost lightning speed in comparison. With the advent of the internet and with the advancement of computer technologies, a lot of scholars seem to be proclaiming that print is dead. I would rather say that print is not dead; it's just in a coma.

If we've been applying these ideas of remediation to all of the other media that exists, why can't we apply it to the book and to the printed page? My boyfriend (a graduate of the Graphic Communications program) went to a seminar where they talked about printing with light. If we have these amazing technologies, why aren't we seriously considering the evolution of the printed page? I'm not thinking of things like hand-held reading devices like the new Kindle on Amazon.com. I'm thinking of the refashioning of the pages themselves. People like the tangibility of the printed page, so let's make it something better. J.K. Rowling imagined a world where images photographs moved, and newspaper text continuously replaced itself on the page. I don't believe that the technology is beyond us. I believe that the book has been left behind in the excitement for other, "newer" media like the internet and the iPhone.

Remediation, as I see it, is learning from one technology to make another, more improved technology. It's all evolution. Take, for example, radio and tv. TV in it's earliest form was basically the audience being able to watch the radio announcers. TV then took that idea and ran with it. Now tv has also remediated other media in some instances. CNN reminds us of the front page of a major newspaper like USA Today because it has several different areas all with things going on simultaneously. This should also remind you of the frenetic, multitasking style of the internet. I feel like all of this has caused people to change and have shorter attention spans, but it could be the other way around as well. People are getting shorter and shorter attention spans, so now media has to keep up by giving us 5 minute bursts of information and then moving on to other things. Maybe this is why the book has been left behind. No one has the patience for it anymore.