After today’s class, write at least 250 words summarizing Lev Manovich’s “What is New Media?” and our discussion of it from today’s class. Copy-and-paste your summary into a comment made to this blog post.
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Manovichâs âWhat is New Media?â is using DVD, internet, websites, and other multimedia to help them see different media that is being presented to them. There is a different type of media people use on their smartphones and computers. They use these different technologies because the illustrations might be different when looking at them through different technologies. They have different effects on these images because of the way your technology is set up and that can cause people to look at all of these pictures, videos, and etc in a different way and people forget that they use different technologies to let people understand their image and videos. He also talks about photography which is similar. In this article, it said, âthe fourteenth century and photography in the nineteenth century had a revolutionary impact on the development of modern society and culture, today we are in the middle of a new media revolution — the shift of all of our culture to computer-mediated forms of production, distribution, and communication.â This is trying to tell people that modern society has developed and that videos and pictures have become more HD and the communication has developed and people are all over the media. This becomes more to communication because people would get more involved in the media world and that there is different technology used in these media and people are able to see them through their computer and smartphones because their qualities show. He wants people to understand that photography is a big part in their media because people around the world when looking through the media they just look at the photo that was being taken from the photographers.
Manovich was born in Moscow, where he started to study painting. After that he moved to New York and became a professor that taught new media art since 1992. Manovichâs âWhat is New Media?â Is a work that covered up different aspects of modern technology and cultural software. He came up with a process identified numbers of key tools called âoperationsâ which separated how people could view the same thing differently and by âthingâ I mean images or videos. This gave the ability to people to perceive non-identical to one another. He set up the bounds for new media into five principles:
1- Numerical representationâ which converts from analog to digital form by building an original pattern of units in space and time.
2- Modularityâwhich reflects the logic of computer programming and makeup of new media.
3- Automationâwhich involves programmed objects that questions the clear separation of human and computer.
4- Variabilityâwhich is an object in the new media that canât be fixed but can exist in different versions.
5- Transcodingâwhich as I understood happens during computerization and while transforming media into computer data. Manovich argues that computer and culture influence each other. The association of these five principles to the media was to examine it. Especially, cinematic and visual media. He focused on how the computer influences new media and how people view images.
Lev Manovich is an author of books on new media theory, professor of Computer Science at the City University of New York, Graduate Center, U.S. and visiting professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He believes that photography and computation are two important things when viewing new media. The definition for new media according to the dictionary means the forms of media that are native to computers, computational and relying on computers for redistribution (for example digital technologies like the computer). However Manovich believe that the root of technology isn’t only computer and technology, but also art (to do art). Art has contributed to new media and how people view things. He discusses the importance of technologies of representation: basically it represents what we speak, write, see, hear, basically our experience with the world (closing aligned with what we see with new media). At the heart of his analyse is the placement of computer (we should not privilege the computer in the means of conduction over media consumption). In Manovichâs âWhat is New Media?â he emphasizes on the types of media:
1- Numerical representationâ All new media objects (analog [radio, skee ball/ pinball machine, record albums] or digital) are composed of digital codes.
2- ModularityâObjects size can be increased without losing its modularity.
3- AutomationâHuman intentionality can be removed in part. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are different ways to manipulate ideas just by pushing buttons.
4- VariabilityâA new media object is not something fixed once and for all but can exit in infinite versions. Old media=human creator who put intellectual concepts in order. New media=characterized by variability–many different versions. (i.e when searching an image and it showing up as different versions).
5- TranscodingâNew media consists of two distinct layers:
-Culture layer- encyclopedia and short story, short story and plot, comedy and tragedy.
-Computer layer- function and variable, computer structure
-Computer layer affects cultural layer (technology âcomp. Layerâ affecting society âcultural layerâ)
In Manovich âWhatâs New Media?â he discussed his perspective on how technology has been influenced by media machines and computing machines so that it can function in our modern society. Manovich believed that photography and computation plays a significant role in the way he views representation. The way representation was viewed was primarily through the way paintings are a representation of the hierarchy status. Another focus that was discussed in this writing was the interpretation as to how computers are able to work through an abstract, instead of having analytical engineering. This representation of the real world through media was very important in the way we speak, we write, and describe our experience of the world. In new media it deals with five different criteriaâs that focus on the following: 1) Numerical representation, 2) Modularity, 3) Automation, 4) Old media and new media and 5) Transcoding.
Nevertheless, in reference to Lisa Gitelman the discussion of social relationships and cultural history helps develop these different concepts when understanding the constant change in media. According to Manovich the history of media involves âdaguerreotypeâ sees the world in computation. In regards to the Jacquard loom it uses codes in its threaded cards to become a functional device. In regards to modularity it is imperative to understand that this principle is referred to as the “fractal structure of new media.â It is understood that just as a fractal has the same structure on different scales, a new media object has the same modular structure throughout (Manovich p. 51). Through these structures it is very important that through these media elements from sound, shapes and behavioral effects that this technology is the reason with how we interact with these things especially in the field of cinematography.
Summary of Lev Manovichâs â What is New Mediaâ
Manovich is a professor of computer science at the University of New York, graduate center, US, and visiting professor of European graduate school in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He writes books on new media theory with focus on photography and computation. Among his major contributions are his concepts that everything is reducible to computing numbers and that art is at the root of technology.
Manovich explains new media has five principles. These principles distinguish new media from old. By examining these principles we can better grasp the fundamental effects new media have on us as a whole.
The first he calls Numerical Representation, which has two parts. This says that all new media are âcomposed of digital code.â Thus, new media can be be described using a mathematical function and be subject to algorithmic manipulation. In this way, âmedia becomes programmable.â The second principle is Modularity or the âfractal structure of new media.â In this, Manovich basically says that the new media contains the same structure as old media, just on âdifferent scales.â Third is Automation. This refers to elements of creation relying on machine work to create the product. This effect of automation removes certain aspects of the âhuman creatorâ from the product. Fourth is Variability. While old media is often crafted and assembled by the âhuman creator,â new media has a production quality that can be copied many times from a âmasterâ version. This attribute of new media allows the âhuman creatorâ to vary copies during production to tailor to particular industry demands. This Variability is a key factor to new media and how it resonates with âindustrial society.â Last is Transcoding. Manovich describes this as the âmost substantial consequence of mediaâs computerization.â Here he describes new media as existing as data, which relies on two layers. One being a cultural and the other being a computer layer. These two layers simultaneously exist and influence one another to manifest into the media we observe and use.
Terms
Continuous – âThe axis or dimension that is measure has no apparent indivisible unit from which it is composed.â
Digitization – âConverting continuous data into a numerical representation.â
Resolution – âFrequency of samplingâ
In Lev Manovichâs âWhat is New Media?â, the idea of new media is discussed as in many of the other pieces we have in class. Lev is actually a professor in the CUNY system, so that concept primes his readers to understand how he would teach this in his own lectures. In this piece, he talks about the criteria that must be met for a media to be considered new. In prior classes, we talked about how new media is just re purposed old media, and how new media contains media that was created before. Manovich has 5 things he considered principles of New Media, and he explains them in order. Without one, we canât have the next principle. The first is Numerical Representation, where a media can be represented by any mathematical concept, whether itâd be equations or algorithms. Second is Modularity, where samples of any nature come together at a larger scale. Third is Automation. We use the first and second principle to automate this media. Fourth is Variability, where this media has infinite ways of existing, and isnât a permanent or fixed media. The fifth and last principle is Transcoding, which in itself is composed of a computerized and cultural layer. The transformation one layer causes to another, or in other words we say it transcodes between these layers. As mentioned before, Manovich lays out these principles in the order of occurrence, where #2 canât happen without the conditions of #1 being met. Manovich explained each principle in relation to the prior principles.
âThe Language of New Mediaâ is an article written by Lev Manovich, he speaks about the principles of new media and each has a specific representation of something. Two of the main representations that he speaks upon is what is known as numerical representation and modularity. Numerical representation is all media that is considered to be relatively new in order to create a new composed digital code. As for modularity, it is what is considered to be a âfractal structure of new media.â There are media elements in which images, sounds, shapes, or behaviors may be taken as a larger scale to assemble.
Ten years after Manovich âLanguage of New Mediaâ Alexander R. Galloway writes an analysis of the book. Gallaway found that the five principles of Manovich were poetic that the ideas are connected that moved him to appreciate the beauty of the ideas. The book âLanguage of new Mediaâ has been written during the web 1.0 which is not interactive, and the websites donât change based on readers or members input. Gallaway has pointed out that Manovich has two greatest weaknesses. The first weakness and the first new media is cinema; which is the first medium by layering by multiple techniques that had existed before the cinema was invented. Because of the invention of cinema results in the invention of photoshop. Which is using the same technique of the color-key effects which had been taken and adapted from the cinematic convention. It is a weakness because cinema is fixed on the screen and we did not have any control. The second weakness is the history that Gallaway says that Manovish gave less focus on how historical context influences new media. Gallaway has also given a reason that Manovish was not interested in politics with manovish has experienced in the Soviet Union. Manovish is more focused on how new media works even if he did not include politics in his essay. Galloway also had stated that he had a slight issue of Manovichâs layer metaphor, which is an algorithm while Galloway says new media is like the Russian doll. The idea of the Russian doll means that technologies are recursive, and they are copied over and over again to make an updated version of new technology.
In Lev Manovich, The Langauge of New Media, he discusses his principles of new media, but before I talk about that, who was Lev Manovich? Born 1960 in Moscow, Russia, he is an author on New Media Theory. He is a computer science professor at the CUNY Graduate Center. So now about Manovichâs five characteristics of New Media, the first one being the most important is Numerical Representation which in Manovichâs theory can be described âmathematically and can be manipulated via algorithms. He says, âthe difference between old media and new media is that new media is programmableâ. The second principle is modularity which include elements as pixels , images ,text, sound etc.. Elements like those named which are independent elements can be modified and reused. Thereâs an example of photoshop and the layers in one single picture. That one picture can have multiple layers in which they can be used independently. The third principle is Automation. You might not understand how automation work but some people do it in their everyday lives. When the user is allowed to create or modify media by using algorithms or templates. His fourth principle is Variability which Manovich wrote, âa new media object is not something fixed once and for all, but something that can exist in different , potentially infinite versionsâ. The last of Manovichâs principles is Transcoding. Transcoding is to translate something into another format. Transcoding consists of two distinct layers which are the cultural and computer layers. The cultural layer consists of encyclopedia, short stories, comedies and tragedies where as the computer layer effects the cultural layer.
Lev Manovichâs âWhat is New Mediaâ is an interesting read that compliments Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusinâs âRemediation.â Manovich introduces five principles that are similar to axiomatic logic. Manovich describes the five principals as ânot absoluteâ and derivations of other media. These concepts go hand in hand with the concept of remediation. Older technologies are reused and repurposed to make new technology while also sharing inherent features of the older technologies. Manovichâs five principles are numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and transcoding. We see these principles in media today. Manovich brings up interesting points about representation when he describes newer media as a fractal structure. His view on the myth of the digital is also interesting. Manovich goes in depth into what happens in the digitization process and how ambiguous it can be when it comes to deciding if it is a new media or not. The language we use to describe new media reminds me very much about computer science and helps give me a much clearer, concrete perspective about how he describes new media. Manovich chooses his words very carefully when describing something. His style of writing helps the reader understand what he is trying to say because of his concise use of language and analysis. Manovich does a good job debunking what he feels like are myths or misunderstandings about the definition what is new media. Manovich also mentions the introduction of the graphical user interface (GUI) and how it imposed its own logic to computers. Things like file directories can be represented in hierarchical terms which imposes another message. Manovichâs perspective into the lack of transparency through the GUI is an interesting one.
“The Language of New Media.” Manovich starts off by asking “What is new media?”
Manovich explain that new media is the culmination of the trajectories on media technologies and computing. This begins with the media technology of photography, like the early daguerreotype, and computing developments’ like the punch card loom and Analytical Engine. Manovich also tell us that it is not unusual that these developments happened during the same time in history as is necessary to be able to distribute images and text to the growing modern society. After discussing the contributing factors and advancements, Manovich provides us with the five principles in defining what new media is. Manovich devised a system of five principles to differentiate the “old media” from the “new media.” The first principle assessed the “numerical representation,” which is about the concept of media becoming programmable. The second principle is about the “modularity,” which addresses the notion that objects can be contained into larger objects, without losing their independence. An example is a group of people, each individual has their own independence. The third principle is the “Automation,” which means that humans intentionally cannot be removed into different parts. The fourth principle is the “Variability,” which is how new media is characterized by the variability instead of identical copies. This gives a rise to many different versions of things. The fifth principle is “Transcoding,” which is designated as the most substantial consequence of media computerization.
In Lev Manovich, âWhat is mediaâ, he argues that history of a image and the history of computing have converged in the present with, â the translation of all existing medium into numerical data accessible for computersâ, Which results into new media. He believes that photography and computing are two important things when viewing new media. Everything is reducible to computing numbers. Manovich also believed that the root of technology isnât only computer technology, but also art. He defines new media, âgraphics, moving images, sound, shapes, spaces, and text, which become compatibleâŚâ Manovich also introduces the principles of new media; Numerical Representation, Modularity, Automation, Variability, and Transcoding. The first two principles are the foundation and the last three depends on the first two principles.