Thank you, all, for this discussion and all your suggestions! cheers, Greg ________________________________________ From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Charles Ess [charles.ess@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 6:17 PM To: Tilton, Shane; Air list Subject: Re: [Air-L] ipad, laptop, desktop Two last comments - 1) Let me thank Annette for her reference to the essay by Daniel Chandler on the Phenomenology of Writing - I've now (finally) read it, and think it's terrific in many ways. Chandler's careful account of the different kinds of writers and writing techniques (from Hemingway's preference for pencil to the fluidity of composing with wordprocessors) provides a comprehensive spectrum and taxonomy for thinking about the many sorts of writings we can do, how these are shaped in part by personal style and perhaps gender, etc. - leading to a rich pluralism of possibilities for us to choose from, rather than the otherwise tempting move of asserting one modality as better than another per se (especially if it is somehow connected to more recent technologies and devices - technological determinism just doesn't want to go away, eh?) In particular, Chandler's account of how many different ways handwriting can be undertaken - and for many different ends - reminds me of a passage Naomi Baron quotes in the earlier mentioned volume: Reading is fast, but handwriting is slow it retards thought¹s due process, it consumes scupperfuls of time, it pushes every competing utterance away and that is its great virtue, in fact, over mere underlining, and even over an efficient laptop retyping of the passage: for in those secret interclausal tracts of cleared thought-space Š new quiet racemes will emerge from among the paving stones and foam greenly up in places they never otherwise would have prospered. -- Nicholson Baker, who ³copies out passages longhand when he wants to understand or reflect upon the words of others² (Baron 2008, 197) (Typed out for your reading and perhaps reflective pleasure on my nifty full-sized computer keyboard ...) Secondly, as regards tactility - enthusiasm for the importance of a specific feel is not restricted to pre-electric/ electronic writing tools. Consider the passion for the importance of the tactile dimension expressed by the fans of the IBM Model M Keyboards ("the best keyboard ever," as a google search will tell you). FWIW, this seems similar to the passion certain calculator enthusiasts show for the HP "voyager" series calculators (11-15) - i.e., because of the distinctive feel of the keys that, apparently, has never been duplicated, even by HP in later models, despite fervent pleas from fans. All of this is certainly, at least in part, a generational thing - but I suspect that in part it is also tied up with our being embodied beings who know and navigate the world in both overt and tacit ways (proprioceptively, as the neuroscientists tell us), such that the tactile dimensions of a given tool or technology make some difference in any event. Insofar as any of this is true, then it may be relevant for Internet research in ways that go beyond our simply sharing experiences and recommendations about good gear. In any event, in my mind the point is not, at the end of the day, to say one interface / modality is better than another. It is rather to recognize the wide range of possibilities that are available, and to make informed choices as to which we learn and take up in light of specific goals, personality styles, etc. And that's all I have to say about that ... Peace, - c. On 1/16/12 8:46 AM, "Tilton, Shane" <tiltons@ohio.edu> wrote:
A simple response....
http://www.shanetilton.com/2012/01/15/writing-from-the-ipad/
Sent from my iPhone
_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/