A friend of mine once posited that unrestricted access to a single piece of technology can mark a creative crossing over of sorts. Once the technology is moved into the artist’s home/domestic space, the exercise of creation can be detached from structured, preplanned time (e.g. at a rental facility) and adapt itself to the natural rhythms of exploration, discovery, revision, frustration, disappointment, and repetition.

For some people this could be an easel in a sunlit room. A potter’s wheel. A darkroom. For her, working in photoshop on a computer, the key crossover technology was a scanner, which previously she had used only after hours at her freelance workplace.

“Once I had a scanner at home,” she told me, “I became an artist.”

I’ve brought three of these crossover technologies into my home.

Once I had a laser printer, I became a designer.
Once I had a banjo, I became a musician.

In 1999 I bought a $1400 DV camera, a new PowerMac, and the $1000 Final Cut Pro version 1.0, thinking this new system would be what helped me actualize my filmmaking potential. But I got sidetracked and ultimately demoralized by the website I built to showcase the work, and gave up after eighteen months or so.

Once I found videoblogging, I became a filmmaker again.

What have been your crossover technologies?