* <<F6P.0060>> Media

The word, media, as I see it is misapplied when people use it to 
refer to entire systems, mechanisms, methods of production and 
reproduction.  For example, people refer to "paper media", but the 
paper (in almost all cases) is NOT the medium; MEDIA, such as ink, 
graphite, charcoal, crayon, and so-on, are fixed onto paper, but the 
paper is not the medium.  The medium is that through which something 
is conducted, not that onto which something is held in stasis.  Media 
is the trasmissive agent, media is CHANGED.   

There's often a tripartite system involved in writing, drawing, 
printing, and so-on.  The three parts are INSTRUMENTATION, MEDIA, and 
STORAGE.  Instrumentation is that which changes media (paint brush, 
palette knife), the medium is that which is changed (paint), and the 
storage is that which stabilizes media – or, more specifically, 
that which fixes changes made to media (canvas). In some cases, the 
system is bipartite as the media and storage are the same (sculpture, 
engraving) or, in the case of the wooden pencil, one could argue that 
the instrumentation and the media are the same – tho' I wouldn't 
make that argument.  To my reckoning, the instrument is the wooden 
barrel of the pencil, and the graphite is the medium. They're 
packaged together, but they can still be separated.
 
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©2015 Adam C. Moore (LÆMEUR) <adam@laemeur.com>