BLOG POST #3 - Do-It-Yourself Digitization

In this blog post we will explore how the way you design a system might have consequences.

Imagine you are an inventor who has created a new process for digitization. In this post, write up your process to share it with your investors.

Part I. Choose something that is analog. For example, you might choose: a painting or drawing, a song, the rainbow, the weather, an experience from your senses, human emotions, etc. State what you chose as your analog "thing", and clearly explain why that thing is analog. If you have trouble explaining why the thing you chose is analog, you'll probably have trouble completing the rest of the assignment. Please consider choosing a different analog thing.

Part II. Invent your own process for digitizing your analog thing. Please describe your process with step-by-step directions for converting the analog thing you chose in Part I into a digital format. Your process should be clear enough that a reader could duplicate your process and turn their own analog thing into a digital format.

It is perfectly OK to re-use one of the methods covered in lecture or discussion/lab sections, as long as you clearly explain the process. But: You can also use your creativity! We will award a +10% bonus if you come up with your own creative way to digitize something that does not repeat something already mentioned in class. Write up your process in a blog post, and illustrate it with at least one picture, photograph, or diagram.

Part III. Every digitization process (ie. conversion from analog to digital) involves decisions about what information to include, which means that some information will be lost in the conversion. Similarly, a digitization process for one type of analog "thing" might not work very well for digitizing a different kind of analog thing.

With this in mind, briefly discuss at least one consequence that might happen if your digitization process became very popular. You can think of this as a benefit or drawback of your process. You might ask: Would it be easier or harder to digitize some analog things vs. others? What kinds of information would be lost, transformed, or even added in your process?

In your write-up, use at least two terms from the following vocabulary list. (Tip: To "use" one of these words, it must be clear to the reader that you know what it means, and you should use it to refer to YOUR process, not just stick it in.)

Vocabulary List:

(These terms are from the Manovich reading and 9/28 and 9/30 lectures. The definitions below are from the dictionary.).
• Discrete. (a., n.) separate; individually distinct (the opposite of continuous)
• Quantize. (v.) to assign a numeric value to
• Sample. (v.) to test at regular intervals;
  (or Sampling. (n.) the process of testing at regular intervals)
• Fidelity. (n.) the degree to which what comes out of a system resembles what went in (as in a "high-fidelity" or "hi-fi" stereo system)

Tips and Advice:
• Your process does not have to involve any technical devices at all.
• Drawing a picture and scanning it onto your computer is not an acceptable process for this assignment, unless you can clearly explain, step by step, how the analog image becomes digital.
• Your process does not have to work very well, or to be useful. It just has to be a way to digitize something that is analog. That will help to show that you know what "digital" and "analog" mean.
• If you want to get the +10% bonus and come up with a process not copied from material we already covered, it is perfectly OK to email your instructor to be sure you are on the right track.
• If you get stuck on Part III, try using your process to digitize more than one thing and look for differences between the results.

Post an answer of at least 300 words to your blog. DEADLINE: Monday Oct. 5 at 11 a.m.-- one hour before class begins.