In week 4’s reading, Manovich describes five principles of new media (the overlap between this and Histories of Film Theory is too much; What’s the deal with Russian theorists with their five step theories? Ok, to be fair, Manovich does investigate Vertov’s Man With A Movie Camera at the start of his book).
We’ve got:
- Numerical representation
This is the idea that “all new media objects … are composed of digital code”. Computers operate through binary code and through the rise of computing and digitisation, all new media — either created directly on a computer or converted from analog media sources — is now composed of digital code. Media loses its physical form, but gains an exponential amount. That’s the way of the internet, baby.
2. Modularity
Modularity informs the way that media elements — such as images or sounds — are made up of smaller parts — such as pixels or voxels — and can be assembled into larger parts without compromising their independence.
A great example of this is a video editing suite, such as Premiere. You can load your individual files — video, audio, image — into the program, and arrange them into a larger sequence. At the same time, these files are being stored remotely, and can be accessed or edited independent of Premiere. This is modularity. It allows separate pieces of media to function both together and separately at the same time.
3. Automation
The first two principles (“the numerical coding” and “modular structure”) allow for Automation. This involves our machines operating automatically, applying certain functions to media, and is effectively a way of removing human intentionality from the media creating process. We’re talking filters, scripts, all things unregulated by human action. This is the good stuff.
4. Variability
This also bases itself on the first two principles. Manovich says: “a new media object is not something fixed once and for all, but something that can exist in different, potentially infinite versions.” Media is no longer treated as a ‘whole’ and its fragmented pieces are just as important. This is what the internet returns to us — our suggestion pages, personalisation, customisation. This is what defines our own personal experience with new media.
5. Transcoding
“To “transcode” something is to translate it into another format”, says Manovich. Transcoding allows for portability — working across different platforms with the same pieces of media, a contemporary media workflow. Three separate .mov files and be made into a single .mp4 file, for example.
This is, of course, a surface level explanation, but these are key pointers in which we base our online screen media projects around; tech jargon just tends to be a little confusing.
With these concepts ringing around our brains after Monday’s class, Darcy and I set our focus on automation. Playlists came to our attention — playlists of music on Spotify, video on YouTube — and we thought about these things in relation to automation. We soon found ourselves in YouTube’s playlist feature and discovered that you can collaboratively work on playlists just by sharing a link. So, our next chapter begins.