Technology

Stephen Magyar

 BIG IDEA: Technology

Technology is commonly recognized as a positive development by the modern world; yet, if we look to the reasons for mass bloodshed and perpetuating conflict, we can easily find it as the culprit. In this day of age, our lives revolve too much around electronics, data and digital processing networks. We live in a digital environment based off of technology compared to no other time in history. In this place we give meaning to things based on its contemporary design, its ability to be update and how fast it can deliver our desires, which are usually just a click away. However, with "all great power, bring great responsibility", and this has never been more prevalent than in today's culture. We can look up where someone lives, what chemicals make up mustard gas, the blueprints for a building, email viruses and other potential evils that can be accessed through the Internet. The Internet however has positive applications such as mobilizing an entire Democratic movement through a social Network like the Egyptian revolution Facebook page or ceasing the censorship by the government of information. In these examples, one can clearly see the role of technology in causing or resolving conflict.

 My art is a word of caution to mankind’s future. It not only sets an allusion to Genesis from the Bible of the apple that Eve eats, but to all sources of potential knowledge that have the power to drastically change an era of human life. In the Bible, God tells Adam and Eve to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge and of course, as the story goes, Eve eats the apple, throwing Adam and her out of Paradise. This is paralleled to my first art piece, as a woman is about to take a bite from a globe with wires in circling it. Here, the world is at risk as the wires are to be characterized as serpents of temptation. This piece is to call to arms people of the earth to use technology for its potential benefits and to defend against its possible negative applications. My Second piece of artwork is a play off of my first image but with an apocalyptic twist attached. This image is in response to the question, what if we succumb to our evil desires and allow technology to overtake ourselves? Here we can find an allusion to not only Genesis but to the Terminator movies in which cyborgs are in power and man has been forced to fight for his place on earth. If we allow technology to take over too much of our lives and dictate the reasons we do things, we will be nothing more than digital machines. There must never be a break of weighing the "economic, political, environmental social and emotional impacts of new technologies on the social worlds in which they are introduced and on which they draw for their raw material" said by Sturken and Cartwright in their book In Practice of Looking: An introduction to Visual Culture. More than anything, my art work’s voice beseeches man kind to foster our human condition and to guard against technology controlling our everyday lives by taking back the little things like interpersonal and intimate communication or enjoying the great outdoors. Finally, we as citizens have the ability to shape our scientific future. Science is not a straight path evolving out of itself but can only gain momentum by the needs of a specific culture. The prevailing truth is independent of the prevailing logic that leads us to believe science as dependent on itself when really science engulfs not only itself but also all proponent of culture interwoven. This gives rise to a promising future for humanity against the possible ills of technology since we as a culture have the power to support or cease developing science and digital technology.