With all our other problems, nothing like the above will get done. Already fewer and fewer people seem to have any of these once standard skills in the arts and sciences. Book layout used to be a part of the design and architecture department. The other month when I was laying out the new shop, I took the finished ink drawing for copying at the architecture students' store. The girl behind the counter was done up in typical art student fashion, purple hair, and delicate tatoos with some piercings. I ask if she sees many hand drawn plans. Not usually. I have to explain why this is a serious loss. You develop your spatial brain with drawing and figuring out scales and dimensions.
A younger guy downstairs started at CCAC, a local art school. He's in his freshman year. I asked him if he was taking figure drawing. No. He had a full academic load. This is pretty much the same problem. You develop your sense of proporition and scale from the human body. It sets up a spatial foundation for just about every space we live in.
CG
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Yes, the brain learns through its analog monitoring/guiding of the fingers and vice versa.
But capitalism doesn't like touching. It's a great loss to the arts and our shared intelligence. It's a killer in medicine, where doctors currently spend a lot more time at the keyboard than touching a patient. You can tell touch is a low thing because doctors never bother to take a pulse or blood pressure anymore. Generally, unless you're a surgeon, you only touch a patient if you're some kind of orderly.
Joanna
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