Desk or floor

The New Ecology of Things assignment asked us to:
research and report on how digital technologies have homogenized activities that were previously more idiosyncratic. The report should be a 10 minute presentation that shows the "old" systems and affordances compared to the "new" ones. Discuss the following:

• What was lost in the transition from non-computation to computational activities?
• What was gained?
• How could the advantages of old and new be combined using the ideas of NET?

As we started thinking through the ideas we concluded that computation has moved most design activities onto the screen through homogenizing software products like adobe creative suite. The notion of the designer desk with print outs and version strewn about has been replaced by the computer desktop. As designers in contemporary times we both have had it drilled into us that we should always print out our design artifacts before sending them to print or to a client. We started to think about why is that important? has computation eliminated that process of printing? Does physical artifacts allow for greater concentration? More attentive design? Greater concepts and ideas? What could we create that instead of isolating the accordance of screen and print actually attempted to combine those of print artifacts and screen based design?