The Designer and Technology

I recently picked up an interesting historical snapshop - Computer Animation edited by John Halas and published in 1974. In the foreward I found the following:

“Before considering the technical possibilities, there is a fundamental psychological handicap to be dealt with which most individuals have to overcome in the animation industry. It is a fact that the artistically inclined dislike the use of machines; art and design students are usually conditioned during their formative years at the majority of colleges, to an attitude which leaves a sense of distrust towards anything mechanical. Artists and designers must come to terms with the computer as they must with other gadgets operated by electricity, and if they seriously want to utilize the values and facilities, they obviously must learn to use the computer in much the same way as they are using pencils, pens and brushes.”

Being at an art and design college, I can tell that this attitude has largely changed... but a vestige of the old assumption often lies just below the surface.