I can’t believe it’s already up to week 10 and I’ve managed to read a reading each week. This is a new record for me I’m 90% sure of it. This week’s first reading was Lev Manovich’s ‘Database as a Symbolic Form’. These were my thoughts that I jotted down:
1. He referred to floppy disks, what a throwback.
2. There is a difference between Databases and Algorithms. Databases e.g. the internet with clusters of information with no particular narrative. Algorithms e.g. Computer games that all have a task that needs to be completed in order to win.
3. Despite what some believe, Databases are not passive because the photos, info and videos etc. found online need to be collated and created by someone, they just don’t appear.
4. The Data craze in the 90s he reffered to (when people were trying madly to put everything on the internet) reminded me of when I used to work at my dad’s office and spent far too many hours scanning, re-naming and then uploading files onto their new database #killme.
5. Websites usually have at least a dozen links, so each site is a database. Is this blog a database? Probably not.
– Caitlin
