Distinct Activities: Shackled by a Common Name?

[Andrew Troup]

I have been puzzling over the absence of discussion of navigation on this forum. Even the navigation forum is largely a discussion of the purchase and troubleshooting of electronic equipment and software, as the subheading implies.

It occurs to me that it's possible this situation reflects how history played out: the mass transition from 'navigation by sailor' to 'navigation by black box' happened by several increments.
Perhaps as a result the new activity was not seen as distinctly different in nature and in attributes. I find it telling, for instance, that it did not get a new name.

In the case of the timeline linking painting and photography, a pairing which seems to me to have certain evident similarities (as well as, like any analogy, obvious limitations), there was a single, obvious innovative leap, and the new activity was given a new name.

The old activity of painting persists, with a more limited role, but is not devalued or discounted. Nobody would queue for hours to look at a photo of the Mona Lisa.

It's hard to imagine an internet forum where painting and photography were bundled under the heading "image-making"...