Question 1: How did writing on clay force you to deal with the technology at the same time trying to get the writing done?
Answer Q1: Writing on the clay took a lot of patience. Rolling it out, alone, took even more patience. Writing in this way forced me to be diligent and think outside the box of different ways to tackle the task a hand. I attempted different ways to use what I had to make the task easier (It’s interesting the innate attitude humans have the need to simplify).
Question 2: How does technology affect the content of your writing as well as the writing process.
Answer Q2: The technology has a lot to do with the content of the writing because of how difficult it was to write on clay. I can imagine people who had to use this as a writing tool used a lot of symbols to make it easier to read and write. I chose to draw a map on my clay tablet because I imagined if I lived in a time with little resources, and all i had was a block of clay and a bobby pin, I would use it for something that serves a purpose. I had no intention on spending my time and resources to critically analyze literature or write in Latin. I thought it would be much more resourceful to draw a map of how to get home. My limited source of technology played a huge factor in what I chose for my content.
Question 3: How does the type of writing influence the technology you are using?
Answer Q3: I sort of eluded to this point in the first answer, but I think the writing influences a demand for newer/ more advanced technology. While I was using the clay I tried to think of ways I could make the process easier with the the limited resources I had. When the instructor said we could use what ever we had to write with, my bobby pin turned into a pen and an old PNC bank card became a protractor of some sort, to create lines.
Question 4: How does technology affect the way you read a document or text.
Answer Q4: The technology made it difficult for the author to write as it was difficult for an audience to read. When I observed my classmates clay tablets some were easy to interpret while others were extremely difficult. By this time, I was already exhausted from making my own tablet that I did not want to spend much effort in reading a highly complicated document (To be honest).
Thank you for your honesty. It was meant to be difficult! It is interesting to see how we react under constraints. Also, be sure to edit your posts for grammar and mechanics.
I really like your comment about simplifying and how humans tend towards the simpler methods. The evolution of writing itself is an example of this. Over the centuries we’ve developed more and more simple ways to write and to mass produce what we’re writing to the point we are at today where everything is pretty much at our fingertips with ebooks and online databases and articles.
I agree with what you said for your answer to question #3. If you want to do something a bit more complex with clay tablet, you have to find something new and better to write with. The same could be applied to any kind of media. People used to write using typewriters, and now we have programs on the computer with many types of fonts and editing options.