Manovich, Lev. "What is New Media?" in "The Language of New Media"
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Manovich, Lev. (2002). "What is New Media?" In"The Language of New Media" (43-74). Cambridge, Mass: MITPress. (See Class Notes for Link)*
Reviewed by Colette Leung
In the chapter, ???What is New Media???? of his book ???The Language of New Media,??? (2002) Lev Manovich argues that multimedia and new media highlight an immediately occurring shift in cultural language and communication, more profound than any previous such as generated by the printing press or photography, because all media is being transformed into computer-mediated forms.
Manovich supports this argument by claiming that to understand this shift, we must understand what it is that makes new media ???new,??? and thus the history and definition of new media must be explored. This definition includes five principles, ???not laws but rather [???] general tendencies of a culture undergoing computerization.??? (49). These principles are:
numerical representation';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'numerical representation';this.style.color = '#000000';">numerical representation which states that new media objects exist as digital code or data (49);modularity';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'modularity';this.style.color = '#000000';">modularity which explains that the different elements of new media exist independently (51);automation';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'automation';this.style.color = '#000000';">automation which explains that new media objects can be created and modified automatically without the input of humans (53);variability';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'variability';this.style.color = '#000000';">variability which states that new media objects exist in different, perhaps infinite, versions (56);transcoding';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'transcoding';this.style.color = '#000000';">transcoding or to translate media into different forms, which suggests that the computer is not only affected by how we understand it, but that it influences how we understand and represent ourselves (63). This is most important.
Further, Manovich suggests that some principles that are oftenattributed to new media aren???t enough to understand new media.These include the idea that new media is not continuous ordigitally encoded, that it can be played on one multimedia machine,that it allows random access, that it can be lost because itcontains a fixed amount of information, that it can be copiedendlessly without degradation, and that it is interactive (66). Allof these principles cannot demonstrate a shift, as they can all beattributed to cinema. Manovich also demonstrates that new mediaallows us ???to externalize the mind??? (74) as we can tracesomeone???s mental structure with new media. Thus it affects allareas of communication (output and input), which makes new mediathe advent of a true cultural shift.
Manovich???s purpose is to provide a meticulous definition ofnew media, in order to provide a common ground and understandingupon which others can build theories and their own understanding ofnew media. He provides a starting point well illustrated withanalogies from film theory, history, literary theory and computerscience, which appeal to many disciplines. He establishes anauthoritative relationship with his audience of interdisciplinaryacademics, those in the field of computers and digitization, aswell as any who are interested in the relations of culture andtechnology, by providing the layout of the land for others tounderstand new media, and by providing a language for use whendiscussing issues.
Moreover, Manovich continually returns to this theme of a???culture undergoing computerization??? (49), the idea that thereis a ???cultural layer??? and a ???computer layer??? (63) thatinfluence each other. Manovich explicitly states this relationshipof culture and computers in the context of new media andmultimedia, a relationship between the arts and the digital, makingthis work of interest to our discipline. By setting this theme inthe text, Manovich marks his writing as important to discussions ofhumanities computing, and sets it apart from other work thatneglect the exploration of this relationship in new media andmultimedia; a relationship that is at the core of HumanitiesComputing.
--ColetteLeung 01:30, 3 December 2010 (UTC)
