digital ... Digital is an electronic method of storing information. MP3s, smartphones, digital cameras and Apple watches are the ubiquitous examples.
Carrying a smartphone is now second nature, allowing consumers to keep music, photos and videos on one small device. Digital watches are cheap and accurate, while an MP3 can store thousands of albums. There is, evidently, something to be said for the convenience of it all. However, there seems to be a backlash under way, with consumers yearning for the very elements that were once seen as the defects of analogue. Sales of vinyl are rising as more people enjoy the “authenticity" of a crackling sound, while Instagram offers filters to replicate film. Many analogue devices are investment items, especially rare vinyls in decent condition – an Elvis Presley acetate, for example, sold for Dh110,000 last year.
A downside of digital devices is that an ill-timed drop can lead to the loss of data. As memory capacity has grown, the more we store and the fewer images we print. While bidding farewell to dusty photo albums may not be a bad thing, the resulting slump put Kodak, a company once synomous with film, out of business. But it may be telling that an artificial shutter click was added to soundless digital cameras to make them more appealing. Maybe there’s something to be said for the familiar, too.
ANALOGUE ... Analogue is the term applied to a non-digital method of storing information. A vinyl record is analogue, as is a hand-wound watch. A film camera is not analogue (as it requires chemicals to develop the film), but the term has been adopted to help differentiate it from a digital camera.
How does it work? A hand-wound watch has a tiny metal mechanism, intricately assembled to move in a preordained rhythm, and so keep time. A vinyl record is a disk, and a needle or stylus is used to etch grooves into its surface. A sound signal is transferred through the needle, and onto the surface of the record, to be played back through the stylus. An SLR (single-lens reflex) camera relies on light-sensitive film. While processing the film can be a clumsy business, a single frame of a large-format camera can contain the equivalent of 400 megapixels per image, which digital is yet to match, or even get close to, despite huge improvements in quality.
Of course, there are some obvious downsides. Watches must be wound everyday; film cameras are bulky; vinyl records scratch, skip, and if dropped, will break. Nonetheless, there is a certain charm to these old-school products and processes – and much to be said for the time and effort that they demand. A bit of delayed gratification never hurt anyone, after all.
Read this and other stories in Luxury magazine, out with The National on Thursday, May 12.
