Coming into this week, most of our discussion held in the class were pointing towards ‘New Media’, as it is a focus and term that is critical in the studio. However, understanding the real meaning behind what ‘New Media’ stands for was actually an issue for me, as my assumption towards it contradicts with my interpretation of the ‘Online Space’.

To start off, Manovich (2001, p.20) argues that

“…today, we are in the middle of a new media revolution – the shift of all culture to computer-mediated forms of production, distribution and communication.” 

He states that this leads to, new media commodities having to be composed of a digital code. (Manovich, 2001, p.27-30). This is because a computer reads its contents through a numerical data. Thus, it’s numerical representation. I believe this means that all means of media created on a computer began as a numerical form. Then, are modified and converted to other forms of digital media. A process that Manovich call digitization.

Furthermore, Manovich (2001, p.30) also believes that ‘New Media’ possesses a characteristic of modularity. He states that

“Just as a fractal has the same structure on different scales, a new media object has the same modular structure throughout.” (Manovich, 2001, p.30)

In my perception, this means that ‘New Media’ can be perceived as ‘distinct’. The reason for is because media elements like images, videos, sounds, etc. can be collated to form a larger scale of media. As a result, these media elements are considered to be individual pieces that can be modified or taken apart without losing its independence.

In addition, a creation of a media commodity is associated with many editing or production. This production is made convenient through many software or algorithms provided by the computer. This process refers to automation. As Manovich (2001, p.32) points out that most software namely, Photoshop, AL (Artificial life), word, etc. allows its user to automatically modify, thus create media independently. For example,

“Photoshop can automatically correct scanned images, improving contrast range and removing noise.” (Manovich, 2001, p.32)

This leads me to, variability.

“A new media object is not something fixed once and for all, but something that can exist in different, potentially infinite versions.” (Manovich, 2001, p.36)

Variability is characterised by producing different versions of a media object. However, it centralises on how this media object possesses customisation to its users.

Last but not least, is transcoding. I believe that this principle interrelates with the functions and influence the computer has on media objects. New media in one level “belongs to the human culture”, but in another level, is “a computer that consists of a machine-readable header, followed by numbers representing colour values of its pixels.” (Manovich, 2001, p.45).

Whilst this is my understanding towards Manovich’s perception of ‘New Media’, I also believe that the term has no precise definition. Through this knowledge upon Manovich reading and discussion in-class, I can now conclude that the ‘Online Space’ and ‘New Media’ is not two separate entities. This is because the ‘Online Space’ or in general, the Internet offers a combination of easily accessible digitised texts, images, video, audio, etc. through a computer which, depict what Manovich describes as ‘New Media’. This occurrence, therefore, explores the notion of convergence of ‘Online Space’ and ‘New Media’. Thus, in the case of this studio, ‘New Media’ means the ‘Online Space’.

 

 

 

REFERENCES:
Manovich, L 2001, The Language of New Media, The MIT Press, Massachusetts.