Notes‎ > ‎

Jan. 28

Manovich's definition of new media:
  • more than the common definition of particular genres (websites, CD-ROM, video, etc.)
  • can be made on computers or converted from "old" media (analogue)
  • The intersection of media technology and computer technology
  • principles of new media:
    • Numerical Representation: when media can be structured numerically and thus programmable
    • Modularity: objects can be broken down into further objects with similar structures
    • Automation: software being able to co-create or take part in creative acts
      • Artificial intelligence in software and games
      • Digital assistants
        • word processing templates, etc.
        • Siri, predictive textual auto-completion
      • tools
        • web hosts that abstract code
    • Variability: potentially infinite versions of items
      • scalability
      • changeable narrative, actual content selection
    • Transcoding: the interaction between the computer as a model and culture
  • What's missing or wrong?
    • What counts as old media
    • His position on lossy compression is wrong


What do we think new media are?

  • share and cross-communicate among devices
    • ubiquity, access
  • it may not be a discrete thing, but rather a way to interact with older media
  • it is evolving; it doesn't function primarily in fixed states so it's always fluid
  • it locks us into particular modes
  • sharing
  • knows about us/customizes everything to us