Archive for the ‘Manovich’ tag
Media is Palimpsestic…
Defining “New Media” is such a complex notion that it’s giving me a headache. Even after reading Manovich, I’m unsure of what to think. I did read the article on Gregg Gillis, and all I can think of is a palimpsest (See image.) Media is constantly evolving and becoming something new, so to define new media is perhaps to say what is the newest incarnation of something. Babbage’s analytical machine is the precursor to the computer as VHS is the pre-cursor to Blu-Ray technology. Books become e-books and Journals become e-journals. It is the new manifestation of these forms that seems to make them new.
I posit, therefore, that New Media is that which is the most current form of a piece of media. Though in a way, this definition can be tricky. Just because a movie can now be filmed and projected in 3-D, does that make film New Media? Or just the process by which it is made? Is the e-book new media? Or just the platform on which you read it? In this way, I argue that “Girl Talk” itself is not New Media so much as the platform through which he entertains. Music is not New Media, but the way that he mixes it through different programs and projects it for an audience is new. New Media changes by how we interact with it, more than the ways in which is develops in and of itself. Perhaps I am incredibly off-track, but this is how I have come to see things after reading Manovich and after listening the “Spark,” a podcast (New Media?) from the CBC.
I realize I have not come to much of a definitive conclusion, but I hope something I have said either makes sense or sparks some discussion. Thanks for listening!