Friday, February 24, 2012

Will Miss #421 - "analog" signs on T.V.

Getting a picture of a television program showing a cardboard sign is much harder than it might seem.

Japan is undoubtedly one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. In fact, I've seen computer chips embedded in traffic cones. Machinery is sometimes integrated at a level that would make a Borg mama proud. Given the deep level of technological sophistication that you see around you, it's odd when you see television shows offering information via hand-drawn signs or printed bits of cardboard that have obviously been manually cobbled together. Frankly, it reminds me of 70's game shows in which answers are revealed by pulling away a strip of cardboard from a slot on a larger piece of cardboard. In fact, I've seen Japanese television shows (particularly NHK, Japan's public television network) do precisely that. 

The manner in which analog signs are used in a country which possesses and uses digital technology reflects one of the core aspects of Japanese culture, a blending of the old with the new, and I will miss seeing them.