1w78 (2w78) Digital, digital.. i am all about the digital

So upon reading the last chat session, it seems we have to base our symposium on our work and reflect on our journey through our project work. Namely justifying why and how our work fits into the digital realm.

As I read the chat, I started to analyse and think about how this project of mine fits in within the digital realm and how i justify it’s existence in the digital world. Kevin and Rabhia bought up some good points in terms of if your work is analogue, how could it be deemed as digital? Kevin’s response was an interesting one as I didn’t even think to view it from that angle.

Kevin basically said that Rabhia’s work, although analogue, the foundations from which the project is constructed from started from a digital form. Also that the way in which the work is presented has always been online via her blog and to us (eg her symposium from unit 1) via some online format.  Additionally, none of us have met Rabhia in the real world yet within this digital realm we are all aware of who Rabhia is and thus we have given her an identity as though she has a digital replica of herself within this digital world.

Am i making sense or do i just make sense to myself? apologies if i dont make sense. blame the automatic writer within me

I never considered looking at it in that perspective at all. Kevin really did open my eyes to viewing things from this new angle. which made me think.. what is deemed digital then and how do I and my project fit into this?

The Oxford Dictionary online definition (http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/digital?view=uk) of Digital is:

digital

• adjective 1 of or relating to information represented as digits using particular values of a physical quantity such as voltage or magnetic polarization. 2 (of a clock or watch) showing the time by means of displayed digits. 3 of or relating to a finger or fingers.

The techterm dictionary definition( http://www.techterms.com/definition/digital)  is:

Digital

Digital information is stored using a series of ones and zeros. Computers are digital machines because they can only read information as on or off — 1 or 0. This method of computation, also known as the binary system, may seem rather simplistic, but can be used to represent incredible amounts of data. CDs and DVDs can be used to store and play back high-quality sound and video even though they consist entirely of ones and zeros.

Unlike computers, humans perceive information in analog. We capture auditory and visual signals as a continuous stream. Digital devices, on the other hand, estimate this information using ones and zeros. The rate of this estimation, called the “sampling rate,” combined with how much information is included in each sample (the bit depth), determines how accurate the digital estimation is.

For example, a typical CD audio track is sampled at 44.1 KHz (44,100 samples per second) with a bit depth of 16 bits. This provides a high-quality estimation of an analog audio signal that sounds realistic the human ear. However, a higher-quality audio format, such as a DVD-Audio disc, may be sampled at 96 KHz and have a bit depth of 24 bits. The same song played on both discs will sound more smooth and dynamic on the DVD-Audio disc.

Since digital information only estimates analog data, an analog signal is actually more accurate than a digital signal. However, computers only work with digital information, so storing data digitally makes more sense. Unlike analog data, digital information can also be copied, edited, and moved without losing any quality. Because of the benefits digital information offers, it has become the most common way of storing and reading data.

So i guess it’s fairly safe to say that they deem digital to refer to something that is electronically generated via binary and/or through the use of some computer hardware.

Ok.. so where does my project fit in with this?

i guess:

1. My project is based on translating sound into visuals that are displayed on screen. By on screen, i mean through the use of a computer screen or electronic screen of some format. so I guess that’s digital interms of the display being a digital apparatus
2. I’m going to be creating the two pieces using Max MSP/Flash and Processing. Flash is a computer programme that is used for displaying graphics and animation on screen. Max MSP and Processing both use a series of code to generate imagery.. code stemmed from the mother of all codes.. binary code.. which is just a series of 0′s and 1′s which a computer interprets, computes and translates into a more understandable “language” and thus I guess that’s digital too as it entails a computer to decipher and translate the code
3. The sounds/tracks I will use for my pieces will be in mp3 format which is in itself a digital format

oh and 4. The theory i used for this project is based on semiotics which is a form of communication. I used semiotics as a basis and then from that i chose to further explore semiotics through various communication models. These models in themselves were analogue as they were used for mass communication in the era pre-computers but then somewhere along the timeline of life/reality, the boundaries between mass communication and mass media blurred and these communication models expanded to include communicating via digital mediums as well.

ok that’s me done for the day.

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