christa.rhet
unfinished thoughts
unfinished thoughts
:: Technology & the Future of Writing Module ::
(i) Apple’s iPad promotional video provides occasion to discuss the two technological myths proposed by Haas (1996) in her volume about the materiality of literacy, Writing Technologies.
Specifically, how might the ways in which this new technology is promoted subscribe to either (or both) the
(ii) Moreover, the iPad’s “haptic” qualities also provide occasion to discuss the ways in which the human body is central to literate activities traditionally characterized as cognitive:
In both Plato’s philosophy and in his politics, the body, materiality, and technology are all suspect. The body, concerned with material or physical unrealities, is inferior to the mind, which deals with true essences. The body and its material nature are not only inferior to the mind, they may also be considered dangerous or evil. [Haas, p. 40-41]
In what ways, therefore, does Apple’s latest technological contribution explicitly challenge Platonic divisions of the mind/body? In what ways might the iPad, at least in as much as we’re able to understand it vis-a-vis this promotional video, perhaps insidiously reinforce the bifurcation of body and mind?
