from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Burns
Burns began her interest in social uses of technology, including the possibility that everybody could make documentaries.
“To me, the computer is just another tool. It’s like a pen. You have to have a pen, and to know penmanship, but neither will write the book for you".
from: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/nyregion/red-burns-godmother-of-silicon-alley-dies-at-88.html
Ms. Burns, he added, did not really believe that technical expertise was essential to creativity, partly because technology is continually changing. Another reason, Mr. O’Sullivan said with a laugh, was that “she really had zero technical aptitude.”
from https://itp.nyu.edu/ima/history-of-itp/:
the mission has stayed the same – getting students to ask how can those technologies could enrich the lives of ordinary people. How can they improve society? Not just making life easier, safer and more efficient but more just, more beautiful, more meaningful and more fun. We have put the new technical possibilities into creative hands of thousands of alumni from every possible background and watched what emerges.
reading that ^ feels very weak. i.t.p. was then never meant to be this ‘critical’ program.
also, let’s examine the claims:
- how can technology ‘enrich the lives of ordinary people’
- how can technology ‘improve society’
- how can technology ‘make life more just, more beautiful, more meaningful and more fun’