Block: Responding to the Ontological Perspective

In my own dealings with computers, I find myself agreeing with Block, especially in the ontological perspective. He tells us that “One of the main problems both in theory and in aesthetic practice is evidently the structure of the medium itself…” (40) The difference between what appears on the screen of a computer (or perhaps the theoretical things of the computer) and the code-based levels of the computer (the structure of the computer) are very different, yet they cannot be separate. Both are so important and so vital to each other.

The things that compose the computer are what allow us to use them. Ironically, the way computers work is both so complex, yet so simple. Block talks about the 0 and 1 language (on/off) language of the computer on page 40. It’s amazing to me that simply turning selective things on and off can run so complex and detailed a machine. This was something that Block also recognized. “…the complexity of the medium. It becomes a problem when the average user when it lacks transparency, because users can no longer perceive it at the level they can access.” (41) I completely agree with this. Personally, I know how to work with a computer, but if I needed to pull my laptop apart and put it back together, or write my own program, I would be completely clueless. I never really took any classes on computers and computer programs in high school aside from learning how to type. I have no idea what I’m really doing to a computer when I sit down and write a paper or play solitaire or load things onto my iTunes account. In thinking about it in a different way, I feel like the superhero that has stumbled onto some sort of secret power but has no idea what it is or how to work with it.


In my own writings and work this semester, I feel like my knowledge of the computer and how it works and interprets things has really broadened. For example, look at this blog page. When I first set this blog up, it had a standard background selected. After a while, I grew tired with it, and so I decided to find something else to replace it with. I searched for a while and finally found a background from a website that I liked. The problem for me was trying to figure out how to put it on my own background. The website provided the specific HTML code needed for me to transfer that background, and after much trial and error, I finally got it to work. Even then I wasn’t happy with it, because the code that the website provided for me contained all sorts of extra banners and things I didn’t want on my blog. To fix this, I had to go through the code itself and delete things that I didn’t want on my page. Now the blog appears the way I want it to, and I feel very proud for figuring out how to understand those codes!

The same is true in my animations. While not working with codes in this case, I have learned that selecting different things in different orders in the animating program produces different results depending on what I click. It can be frustrating at times, but I have found myself completely in agreement with Block when he talks about the inseparable relationship between the computer codes, software, and 0 and 1s, and the way things appear on a screen- the ontological perspective.