The artist and the medium through which they express themselves are always evolving. Whether the artist evolves and changes their medium or the medium evolve forcing the artist to adapt or reinvent themselves. As society continues its course through modernism, changes will be inevitable and thus a stand-up against technology would be futile. Typography throughout its history has played different roles in conveying messages and ideas. Over time, its role changes, and the stoplight has often shifted to a point where its relevance questions have risen. And its role in the mind of the reader.
Beatrice Warde defined the role of printings as the courier of thoughts, ideas, and images from one mind to other minds. Before there was photography, the type carried the duty of providing scenery, and visual ideas. Through the rise of technology, we’ve come to succumb to our own laziness and lost touch with the art of the written word. Ideas and thoughts have nonetheless not stopped its transfer from one mind to another.
Machines will not get better than they were yesterday and become even proficient at accomplishing their tasks. Their intent was to make lives better and provide precision that humans otherwise couldn’t. While some see machines as a threat, another approach would be to utilize them for their core functionality; aid. It applied to art as well, to create new and more meaningful experiences.
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