First we build the tools, then they build us.
— Marshall McLuhan
"Around here, that's how we do things." I don't know about you, but that line rings real true for me. Take any technology you work with-React, Figma, Webpack, Invision, Bootstrap, what-have-you—and think not about its specific features, but about how it changes the way that you work. How it structures your work; reshapes it. That technology makes many things possible, sure, but it also prevents you from walking down certain unsupported paths. It's a way of doing something.
— The design systems we swim in ↗
That's also to say that usually - but not always - the piece you produce tomorrow will be shaped, purely and simply, by the tools you hold in your hand today. In that sense the history of art is also the history of technology. The frescoes of pre-Renaissance Italy, the tempera paintings of Flanders, the plein aire oils of southern France, the acrylics of New York City - each successive technology imparted characteristic color and saturation, brushstroke and texture, sensuality or formality to the art piece. Simply put, certain tools make certain results possible.
— Art & Fear
233 words last tended to on 2023-12-05 — let me know what you think