Does Form Still Follow Function? Technology & Art

^Thanks for the link and the excellent quote, Gerard. That says it all.

SteveG wrote: presdoug wrote: The Dark Elf wrote: I read the other day that piano sales are at an all time low. Technology has trumped form and function:   http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2015/01/04/piano-stores-business/21254805/   Rather sad, in a sense. Sort of like the demise of door-to-door Encyclopedia Britannica salesmen.   That resonates with me, personally. My late father sold Encyclopedia Britannica door-to-door in the 1950s for a while.  Wow, PD. At first I thought you were going to say that you're father played grand piano with an orchestra or something. I didn't see the Encyclopedias coming, which my father also sold door to door once.

Cool. My Dad eventually became an English Literature teacher (High school level)

The Dark Elf wrote: SteveG wrote: ^Yes. I regret buying that Casio in the early nineties!   Well, as a curmudgeonly old fart, I think there is something to be said about hearing a Steinway being played, as opposed to a Roland merely digitally mimicking the sound. Of course, I read things called books (yes, those rectangular items with paper pages and a cover) rather than Kindles or what-have-you, so I'm practically astoneaged when it comes to technological advances.

No argument here. I still read books by candlelight.  Just kidding, but I still dig books instead of tablets.

Edited by SteveG - January 06 2015 at 16:47

SteveG wrote: ^Yes. I regret buying that Casio in the early nineties!

I read the other day that piano sales are at an all time low. Technology has trumped form and function:

SteveG, I believe that it's important to have in mind that the technology in music wouldn't have evolved without the composers often writing visionary "music of the future" (kind of composing very much with contemporary instruments in mind.) This happened for instance with the piano, as I read in Wiki it has evolved technologically more than any other musical instrument, such in a way that it caused quite a few changes in the playing style of a performer when he attempts to render on a modern piano works written for earlier ones.

Edited by Rick Robson - January 06 2015 at 16:04

SteveG wrote: It was only my point to emphasize the importance of technology in art and that it may have even proceeded it. But yes, they are intertwined to me.

Edited by King Only - January 06 2015 at 11:48

Wasn't creating the first flute from a bone a form of technology? I don't think we can draw a separation line. Wood? electricity? electronics? computers? You need a lot of technology to create and build a church organ, isn't it?

sleeper wrote: I see the two as symbiotic, the desire to create and advance art has resulted in new technology to create new sounds and the desire to advance the technology to do things better has opened the door to an ever more diverse aray of art. For millenia the two have been feeding off each other and will likely continue to do so.

I think this is the answer I was trying to come up with in my own post.  Bravo.

^I agree that the use of technical means is inherent in Man. But again, I stress that that use superseded the Man's interest in art. It was first used for the preservation of life and the formation of weapons for defense.