Response: Lev Manovich

This reading begins with Manovich declaring his credentials as an artist. This lays the groundwork for what he plans to reveal about new media theory. The author has obtained an education, which I consider very appropriate for new media applications. Manovich is well trained in mathematics and also a well-disciplined artist. According to some, this requires a healthy balance between left and right brain power. I often believe this is why I am inclined to pursue goals positioned in the Computation Arts area. This requires an analytical thought process and a creative perspective.

The article briefly touches on how we are a culture of information. It is distributed to us in an innumerable number of ways, which are all intended to facilitate the absorption of the content into our conscience. The efficiency of transmission is somewhat of a parallel between the world of programming and that of art making. Manovich historically analyses the evolution of new media in an effort to define this genre. It is remarkable to see this link in the earliest days of computation. That is, the Analytical engine and the Jacquard loom. The former, which outputted mathematical expressions and the latter, which created images. I have heard that the term "Computer Bug" was wrongfully attributed to the event involving a moth and the vacuum tube of an early computer. The term may in fact come from the Middle Ages where weavers found bugs in their loom. I was not able to find a trustworthy reference for this. Using tapes as computer media is derived from the Universal Turing Machine, which was programmed by holes in the evenly spaced frames of traditional film bobbins. The author presents his principles for defining new media.

Media becomes programmable because of its structure. It is composed of small particles, which can be rearranged. This is in place of particles, which are different sizes. Take the analogy of gears, for instance. A device like the UTM would have different gears to arrive at its answer. Elements in modern computers are all of the same size (1 or 0). This makes them more versatile. Each element can be recombined to create a composite item, which can be later rehashed into yet another composite. Humans thanks to the computation systems in place can easily manipulate many of these compositions. The standardized format of elements allows these to be merged and rearranged. They can be converted into mediums, which they are not native to. Like placing a photograph in a movie or webpage.

In this world of on demand access to media, it is easy to ignore the degradation of quality. Most people still don’t have the knowledge to allow them to distinguish between a high quality 320+kbps audio file and its low quality 128kbps counterpart. Many are unaware of different compression standards, which may reduce the lossy quality of their media. The creator and viewer must become more knowledgeable in regards to new techniques, which are changing and evolving daily. Although web 2.0 is considered to be a collective community based system which promotes interaction, any website (or any artwork) can be considered interactive. This is because the interaction takes place within the mind of the subject. If a discussion takes place between the work and its audience, a truth or outcome can be discovered.

Related Links 

• Apple’s 1984 television commercial
• Understanding Compression Standards
• What is Web 2.0 and Ajax?
• Series of articles regarding art and design. This one is about art and memory. Art can be interactive by being dialectic (no need for a computer). 
• Processing : programming language which merges standard programming and art making.