- What does Ritchin mean with the “fluidity of the digital”? Give an example of digital imaging/digital photography that exemplifies this.
The fluidity of the digital refers to the changes and developments in photography which might came from the advancement and progress of editing technology. In recent years, photo editing software becomes much more accessible and easier to use, people who not only including professional photographers, can manipulate photos by changing the structure of the image. It can be easily converted to other media, such as video and virtual reality.
Nowadays, any private photos can be made public immediately, and can even be used or manipulated for malicious purposes. Once a friend of mine prosecuted a soap operas’ company for which it use my friend’s parents’ marrying photo in the plot without her permission. That also an aspect of the fluidity of the digital. However, if we can use it correctly, the digital platform also provides us with new narrative possibilities.
2.Reflect on the extent to which photography is capable of capturing reality; and compare it to other media (technology) (e.g. text, video, virtual reality, books).
With the advancement of technology, we can use photography to start taking images of objects in real life. For example, scientists use electrodes to take pictures of monkeys’ brains. This is a feeling of capturing reality. In essence, they capture part of time through the monkey’s brain and how the brain functions through photos. If we compare this technique with text, video or books, the photography of monkey brains is much more complicated than what the books describe. In this sense, photography can capture reality better than other forms of media. In recent years, computer technology and photos have been developed to the extent that they can replace traditional brushes and canvases. We can capture an image and save it immediately without having to physically draw it out of some inaccuracy. Today, photography itself has become a language, but the vocabulary is limited. Photos may be able to capture reality effectively, but viewers can interpret these photos differently and use them in different ways, which may eventually cause problems, which other forms of media (such as text and video) will not encounter Situation to actual usage of words and sounds. Photography is a new language, but it is not as flawed as any other form of media.