This text is a primer for a collaborative symposium at Penn State University on April 6, 2015, “Digital Aesthetics, Art, Life and Museums." The hashtag for the symposium is #psuda.
4.
Penn State’s own Christopher Long has been an influence as well in blog posts on 14
technology and particularly in his remarks in the YouTube video, “Technology and the 15
Practice of Philosophy.” As his opening statement, Long states, “Technology has always 16
really been a part of human nature.” Speaking of the Titan Prometheus, he reflects:
So he [Prometheus] steals fire, fire from the gods, for them [humanity]. And in a way,
he gives us technology, he gives us art, he gives the ability to sustain ourselves, to
protect ourselves, to warm ourselves. So if we think about that myth carefully, we
recognize that even from the early beginnings of the ways humans have thought about
ourselves, technology has been inherent in the ways in which we’ve interacted with the
world.
Long’s reflection demonstrates the ancientness of the integration between art, humanity,
technology and the world.
Humanity is in one holistic and monistic reality with the digital aesthetics. We can understand
this in reference to “digital monism,” “onlife” with the “infosphere” and “biocybernetics.”
Moreover, humanity and the arts have always utilized technologies to care for, interact with
and make our world.
3. What are the critical aspects of our daily practice with digital technology that foster a life of
awareness, beauty and humanity?
With digital monism as the nexus of one’s sense of being unified in the world with digital and
physical, a person’s daily practice can more acutely pursue a life of awareness, beauty and
humanity. The material is metadata, part of the identifying and descriptive aspects of reality,
but it does not confine the essential matter (i.e. content) of life’s meanings which move in flux
between digital and physical forms. Digital Monism is the quintessence upon which humanity
interprets and orients its purpose for being in the world. One is free to seek the pulse
expressive life, the feel the impact of aesthetic force and pursue humanness which is beauty.
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Christopher P. Long, “Christopher P. Long” http://www.cplong.org/
15
Christopher P. Long, "technology Search Results: Christopher P. Long," Last update November 6, 2013
http://www.cplong.org/?s=technology
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Christopher P. Long and Casey Fenton, Technology and the Practice of Philosophy, Performed by
Christopher P. Long, (Published on Nov 2, 2013, YouTube) https://youtu.be/387aFNA_HE
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