Dumb and inert
“information can be just that, dumb and inert: it needs tools of interpretation and discernment and judgment in order to have meaning. “Definitive meaning,” as such, is a slippery slope indeed. In fact, the slope is steeper and more treacherous now as the sheer quantity of information (from Google Earth, TerraServer, etc.) grows. To see a photograph of a thing is to see a picture of that thing, an interpretation of it, whether by the photographer, the remote satellite camera, or the viewer. The same aerial photograph of a flooded New Orleans may be interpreted quite differently by a hydraulic engineer, a former resident of that city, a member of Congress, or a pastor. There are multiple truths in images, but too frequently singular truths are ascribed to them.”
- David Maisel
