Invent Your Own Technology

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Invent Your Own Technology

“The first writing technology was writing itself (39 Baron).” -Dennis Baron, From Pencils to Pixels

Re-introducing myself to a task that I have taken advantage of my entire life proved both frustrating and time consuming. Writing has always been done with at least a pencil hasn’t it? Apparently not, and I realized that as I set out to “create” a non-technological way to write. The new way of writing I created, although effective, took quite a bit longer than I had anticipated. Thinking of an idea for this project was easy; it was putting that abstract thought into concrete form that proved difficult. Armed with the best of intentions I set out to create a project equivalent to Egyptian hieroglyphics carved on the tops of pyramids. I soon realized that I set my goals a bit to high so I began scratching a few words into a piece of tree bark with a rock. When that proved not as interesting as I wanted, and certainly not as aesthetically pleasing, I moved to plan B: creating my own ink by boiling grape peals. The ink was a deep shade of purple (and smelled like wine); I was sure it would write just like ink from a pen and I would have a beautiful project.

However my ego got the better of me. As it turned out the fermented ink would not write on my bark surface. Instead it absorbed into the bark never to be seen again. I moved to plan C. Creating a smoother surface for my wonderful ink by mixing flour and water and spreading it over the bark-again unsuccessful. Plan D: stick with the flour and water mixture but carve into the surface, like clay, before it hardens completely. (I had utterly given up on the ink.) Success! I had finally created a new way to write. In just over three hours I had a ten-word document. It wasn’t profound; it wasn’t beautiful; but it was certainly permanent. My creation came to life.

Through this inventing process I was not only able to make a new writing technology, but I also learned something very valuable about myself-I have surprisingly little patients.

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