The central thesis behind Jones’ thesis is that old technology does not necessarily get replaced, instead heavily influences the new wave of technology, and thus is an integral part of all new innovation there after. She uses the example of the Egyptian empire saying, “The stone columns of ancient Egyptian architecture were based on earlier bound papyrus columns” (21). The old architecture was used and influenced this new architecture that heavily influenced architecture that is still going on today. While her article talks more about the development in the computer screen and the technology involved with that process, the concept is very open ended. The idea is that we will always be using old technology or information somehow because that old information is what is influencing the new information. I find this thesis to be very well argued and believe it to have a lot of velour.
Jones gives three historical examples of the change and improvements of the computer screen. The one that I would like to talk about is her example of John O’Niell and his creation of multiple games for the brand Atari. On page 26, Jones goes through great detail about how O’Niell quit his job as an artist to work for the company because he felt this was a better way for his art to influence people. O’Niell used old artwork and old computer designs to create a new and fresh game that many people saw as “new age”.
A real world example that supports Jones’ thesis, and may be too big of a leap but I am going for it anyways, is political tension between the United States and Russia. While this does not have much to do with art, it follows the Egyptian example that I used earlier in that the new problem is stemmed from older problems. The older problems have not gone away, they have just been engulfed in this new issue. An article ran three days ago by Aljazeera is headlined “US and Russia renew cold war rivalry”. As you can see, the tension back in the mid 1900’s has not gone away. It is still part of todays topic thus supports Jones’ thesis in a broad way.
Jones. B.J. (1990). Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins. LEONARDO: Digital Image – Digital Cinema Supplemental Issue, pp. 21-30.
Batchelor, J. (n.d.). US and Russia renew Cold War rivalry | Al Jazeera America. Retrieved August 10, 2014.