This week I have been compelled to acknowledge that I really am out of date. Although I have trundled along in the belief that I’m really quite au fait with our contemporary electronic world, quite suddenly I have had to recognise that this is no longer the case. I was, in many respects, an “early adopter” in relation to quite a number of features of communications technology. My former employment made this relatively easy, as the University offered training in the various skills required within that context. Not surprisingly, therefore, I really became quite good at world-processing as it supported my academic writing. Even when I left academic employment, I realised that several things are really quite useful …. even essential …. for an artist. Consequently I got myself a web-site which I maintain pretty regularly. Today, however, it was brought home to me that I need a refresher course.
Preparing materials for a brochure in connection with my forthcoming Lincoln exhibition I really got myself into a tangle, receiving illustrations from the photographer and sending these on to the printer. In the past I have always used CDs in order to store and communicate material. (I have even taught myself to print designs on CDs.) Today it was brought home to me with a jolt that these days NOBODY uses CDs any more. Also I’ve discovered that there is something up there called a “cloud”, and I really have no idea what it is, but I ought to shift myself to find out.
I have become very comfortable in my world, and it has served me well. Nevertheless, the conclusion has become inescapable, that I am a bit of an electronic fossil, and I really need to make the effort to do something about that. At the moment I’m still puzzling over the question of how I might go about that. Even so, “there’ll be some changes made.”
World processessing? Well, I suppose, you are a sociologist . . .