This week’s reading by Manovich discussed databases and their relationship with narrative. From my understanding of the reading, databases are organised lists of items about the world that completely contradict the cause and effect structuring of narrative. In alliance with these databases are algorithms. These work mainly within the realms of computer gaming, that is, they require the player to execute an algorithm in order to win.

Data structures and algorithms are then complementary. The latter encapsulates any process or task, any sequence of operations; and any object in the world is modelled as a database, meaning that it is organised in a way for efficient search and retrieval (linked lists, graphs). Together they have a symbiotic relationship, the more complex one is, the less the other needs to be.

Interfaces are a new way to handle databases and are really only applicable to the Web. In olden days, when someone made a painting, the interface and the work would be one, because the media used and the end product were the same thing. But with internet pages, different interfaces can be managed over the same material. Interface and content are therefore separate. Hence, it is possible to present different versions of the same work, using different interfaces over the same content.

The most notable part of the reading for me was at the beginning because it helped me think in terms of the creative essay.

“Indeed, if the world appears to us as an endless an unstructured collection of images, texts and other data records, it is only appropriate that we will be moved to model it as a database, but it is also appropriate that we would want to develop the poetics, aesthetics and ethics of this database.”

and

“The open nature of the Web as medium (web pages are computer files that can always be edited) means that the Web sites never have to be complete – and they rarely are because the sites are always growing.”

I think these help to answer a few questions about change and flow on the internet, but I’ll discuss my thoughts further in the creative media essay.