it seems that it is not the multitasking that is the problem but the switching of technologies that causes problems. i cannot reconcile the two types of passivity between the digital and analogue but at present i am tending toward the analogue. productivity is up and i think that it is due to having to block a period of time to work.
writing on paper but principally in the darkroom, i cannot simply head down between doing something else. film takes 30 minutes of concentration, i cannot stop to do something else. in the dark since i have to mix all those chemicals i block out larger periods of time and while this is possible and preferable when working on a screen it is much easier to be diverted.
diverted without even getting up. while the image scans, i can constantly check emails. even while planning to write an email i can be diverted by the other messages in the in-box, in my case no digital action takes long enough so that the diversions have to be short. articles, that i'll read later if they are over 100 words, surveying the tabs to for something to look at.
i have grown more attached to my messy physical desktop than my virtual one, i can clean the former but the tools are constantly in the way in the other. this is more prevalent in photoshop where there is so much around the image that it is hard to concentrate on the snap. the exact opposite from the darkroom.
superficially i thought that digital is the passive medium but no, one has to choose those passive qualities. there is the same waiting time in the darkroom as there is on a desktop but in the dark, one has to make do with the lack of diversions. thinking happens, staring at the snap for an extended period of time continues the heavy editing. for lack of other options.
with the digital as i have stated, one never has to be left to one's on accord, there is always that option to change windows whenever anything takes time. for me it tends toward the superficial. i tend to be diverted too much with these options. i see objects less often, i tend to think that i am efficient while working digitally when in truth i am not.
geographically, analogue is an outport, digital is new york. i prefer the outport.
for the last six months or so i have liked the slower process. even with the problems that i have had with the bellows leaks with both the 10x8 and joãozão and along with the focus problems i had with joãozão while doing the brooklyn wander, i prefer consigning the snap to memory - even if it is one fraught with worry - to be seen at a later date - even if i cannot get easily return to rectify an error. it is somewhat comforting that they can be fixed with duct tape. having to do one thing at a time, this has expanded to using more retrograde processes mainly the post and the books of wander are tending toward gelatine silver prints. in fact i have found that i can produce a portfolio in less time than a bound book where it seems that it the digital path is faster and less complicated it isn't. the time between the printing and the compillating of the edition.
i prefer this to the extent that i have problems writing post cards as my handwriting is so bad that i have to resort to the laptop to have anything legible. i find that i put off turning it on even though the time will be brief and once it is on relatively painless which, in coming full circle, is hindering my communicating with others who are keeping the digital in its place.
