"For all of the "progress" associated with advancing technologies and the purported conveniences of having tiny, powerful computers at our fingertips, there are certainly some drawbacks. Smartphones today-and their millions of apps-are data-collecting devices as much as they are portals to search engines, maps, social media, the news, and anything else on the internet. And the market for regular hardware upgrades and software updates can trap us in a perpetual loop, spending big money for faster speeds and the newest features."
"There's certainly some merit in phones and gear that are a bit "less smart." Just as the Luddite Club, members of which prefer to switch off or use "dumb phones," citing the value of building real-life friendships rather than spending a ton of time on social apps. For a lot of Millennials who came of age as cell phones rolled out, they're just old enough to remember AOL Instant Messenger, chatrooms, basic flip phones, and pixelated Game Boys. The generation can recall an earlier, simpler era of digital tech and the World Wide Web despite being the first to enter adulthood and careers that have been indelibly shaped by its transformations."
"For one such Millennial, Nicole Nikolich, a.k.a. Lace in the Moon, throwback devices from the early 2000s like the Blackberry, T9 phones, and Nokia's "Bricks" are sources of both reminiscence, play, and inspiration. Through the medium of crochet, itself a craft practice deeply entwined with comfort and nostalgia, the artist has created a series of larger-than-life fiber portraits of iconic digital objects and icons for her solo exhibition user_history at Paradigm Gallery + Studio. Crochet-and by extension, craft-might be seen as something of an antithesis to the digital or virtual realm. One must use their hands to do a timeless, manual activity, and it doesn't get much more analog than physical yarn and a needle or two."
Smartphones and countless apps function as data-collecting devices while offering search, maps, social media, news, and other internet services, and the hardware and software upgrade market encourages repeated spending for faster speeds and newest features. Some people endorse simpler, 'less smart' phones to prioritize real-life friendships over time-consuming social apps. Many Millennials recall earlier digital technologies such as AOL Instant Messenger, chatrooms, flip phones, and Game Boys, associating them with a simpler era even as careers were reshaped by technological change. Artist Nicole Nikolich creates oversized crochet portraits of early-2000s devices, using craft's tactile, analog nature to evoke comfort, nostalgia, and resistance to digital saturation.
Read at Colossal
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]