Third entry: The Role of Technology in my Profession and Life

I'm a second year student of Theory and History of Art, it's not a new major, so it has been taught for decades with the same dedication as today without the technology of this century, however, its development has been linked to the development of new technologies. I can quickly access archives, catalogs, investigations, books and thesis on different subjects written in different parts of the world in different centuries. I don't even have to leave the house to study on my own about pre-Hispanic clay pots or the pop art boom; the sources, as long as the power is not cut, are at my disposition. I don't even have to write an essay by hand. I don't even have to know Holland to expertly know Vermeer's work. As long as the power doesn't go out. As long as some unfortunate doesn't crash into the power lines. As long as the long-term exposure to screens doesn't leave me blind, money isn't tight and I can't pay for the internet. As long as my body doesn't remember that it's not the vessel of consciousness, that it isn't a ghost and wants to run away, climb a tree or hammer my phone.

I hide from credit cards, surveillance cameras, self-checkout supermarkets, internet shopping and facial recognition systems as if they were the black death. But I am not a monk and for that reason I fill my stomach with PDF, video and audio files, every night I throw my net and catch a couple of books, a couple of movies and a couple of songs and leave them under my pillow at bedtime so they can enter my head while I rest and hide for a while from Vermeer, Holland, the oil paintings that I will only see digitized, the transcriptions of manuscripts, from critics, historians and the great minds of each generation. I have a small glass jar where I leave my intangible property, my digital collection, when I when I can't keep an eye on it. It's a jar that I shake every morning to entertain myself. They wait for me obediently and quietly inside the jar, only shaking me back when the power goes out. Sometimes I leave it uncapped and sometimes I forget about the ones below for months and years. I haven't renounced to nothing, cameras still focus on my face and search engines still collect my preferences, I have bought shoes online and got a discount, I have self-scanned my cans of food when the line at the traditional checkout counters has become endless, I have barely a stack of books and only one CD. I have nothing of what I love most. I drink the coffee that a machine has made and in the elevators I ride avoiding the stares of other eyes. I believe in alienation, in streaming services, in the Statue of Liberty, in keeping a clean nose and in cryptocurrencies. I believe in the skyscrapers in Dubai and I think they should be replicated here. I believe in everything that is cold and also in what has been overheated. I believe with guilt, a part of my body is rotting but I can't cut it off yet... maybe when I have money and forget about pirating. I can't ignore it but I can't easily detach myself from something I was born with.