Week 2, Topic 1, D

As opposed to analogue data, digital data is in many cases easier to manipulate, and the end result can be reproduced indefinitely without any loss of quality. Bolter and Grusin calls the process of divorcing digital media from earlier media as "remediation," and they note that earlier media have also refashioned one another: photography remediated painting, film remediated stage production and photography, and television remediated film, vaudeville, and radio. In their opinion there is not a clean break between digital and analogue media but they are trying to separate themselves from eachother. There is obviously some relationship between the two, it can be said that digital is just upgrading of analogue. For example email is the same concept as sending a letter yet it is quicker, cheaper and more convenient for both the sender and receiver. Another point to consider is transferring media from analogue to digital and vice versa. This can be seen, for example, in printing digital photographs, turning digital media into analogue, or copying music from a cassette to a CD. It is evident that analogue and digital media will never be completely separate, as Boltin and Grusin claim, especially when it is clear that digital would not exist without it developing almost exclusively from analogue media.