As an Drama major living in the "digital media" age, I am realizing it is becoming more and more prevalent to understand the technology available to me. I am coming to understand there are multiple definitions to digital media. One definition focuses on the difference between an analog signal and a digital file. An analog signal is a continuous signal, or one file. A digital file being a file that has been broken up into different tiny pieces, or discontinuous. The next type of technical definition are the devices that can now amplify digital context. Historically, digital media is organically producing and operating mechanical images produced by numbers, meaning each color or number being projected through a technological device is produced by a unified base line of numbers.
Though these definitions make sense, the definition of digital media that impacts my view of digital media the most is the ontological view, defined by McLuhan. McLuhan views digital media as an electric media. It is the nature of all industrialized media. All media has the nature of electricity and the currents connect all things. What makes this so powerful is that even humans have electrical currents running through our bodies. As social networks continue to grow in popularity, this idea that digital media is the glue that holds us all together becomes an increasingly important concept to understand.
As artists, I feel digital media directly influences the creativity levels of artists. As a student studying the art of acting, I always feel inclined to study the nature of human behavior on a world-wide level. Essentially, (Like Bob King) I also am a student of cultural studies. Though that may not be the exact title of what I am studying here at UNCSA, I feel its an important part of acting. Like Steve Dixon suggests, the theater arts have evolved in using digital media, in order to enhance productions. From the introduction of gas, and later electric, lighting effects, to the modern use of the computer to control lighting, sound and set changes, technology has been used in ways that have created incredible visual and auditory effects. Though the theater arts has evolved technologically, digital media has also influenced the creativity of the actors. For example, Fuerza Bruta, a show running on Broadway, is the perfect example of a show using technological advances in lighting and special effects.
John Lethem's article, The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism, begins by recalling the story of Lolita. Reflecting on this tale is a lot like reflecting on the influence of digital media. When a cultivated man becomes so intimate to something and charms him, he becomes completely influenced by it. This is what is happening with the digital community. More and more people are beginning to see digital media as an essential asset.
Like Bob King's intrustor audio content stated, I think it is so important to study digital media because it is the glue that holds things together. By viewing digital media on a global scale, you see that media is everywhere in the creating and thinking processes. Digital Media Changes Everything!
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