THE DIGITAL HEARTH
Welcome again, my dear readers, to His Empty Space. This post will be a trail of my thoughts on hearths and on more present metaphors relating to them.
As I do, I had this idea of an evolved functionality of a certain subject. To be more precise, I was thinking about fireplaces and how they act as a place of gathering, of sharing stories, and of a disclosed space between the dark world around them and the emanating light from within them.
Fire is, of course, what this is all about. Fire as connection, source, comfort. I think most of us have had a resonating feeling while sitting down beside the endless glow and dispersing particles. Like there was something more to all of this life. It makes you think as you stare into its piercing, scorching core. It becomes more than your little flame in the dark. It’s a shared one that we can all find.
Now, I want to project this into a digital world. Can you imagine how that fire, the arrangement of its pieces, the extending energy and the assortment of friends gathered around it could potentially equate to a modern hearth? The digital hearth.
Some of us may sit around a table whilst eating and watch the television, and also talk, share ideas, ponder over our reflections and so on. The point is that when the fireplace is gone, a new one enters our harbour .
The computer as hearth
We turn the computer on by the switch, the power cable connected to an even greater energy: electricity. Electricity can be a hearth, as it is both utilised as energy, distributor to our own digital gatherings and possibilities to share information. It conjures up the same response. We sit down, we have our space in which we come to use these devices–be it the computer, the television, or other hand-held devices like phones, or so on–and we form a communion through the electronic hearth to others.
There is some difference, I think, to this idea. The most prominent I could think of was the lack of friends; friends being there, except rather behind the device and its emitting light, its glowing and emanating electricity that enables us to be with them and yet alone at the same time. Isn’t this strange? Another concern arises: lack of friendship when there’s a lack of power, of that “fire” that enables the connection. When the internet is down, you can’t as easily light it back up again as a flame.
You wouldn’t sit around a weakening or dead fire and feel compelled to talk, would you? Not as much as if it was alive and fierce, like in the heat of a good conversation where you feel like the same energy that made the communication possible was inside of you all along. Except we do sit alone, usually, and come together as this digital communion where freedom of ideas and freedom of expression is ripe. Distance and format are the only real changes.
So, do you believe in digital hearths? Are they real, or just a strange idea? Let me know your thoughts and extensions upon my own written here.
Note: I was quite tired at the time of writing this, so apologies to any lack of fervour that would normally exist in my posts.
Note 2: the drawing above is my own, as is most of the imagery i use, whether it is created in digital or traditional media. My website is [ hisemptyspace.wix.com/hisemptyspace ] if you wish to see more of my work. Just copy the link as it doesn’t work through WordPress 😦
Again, thank you all!
Tom.
His Empty Space 