DEVELOPMENT NUMERO TRE

This week in class we discussed Manovich’s (2001) work ‘The Language of New Media’, in particular the principles of new media he outlined in his work. An aspect of this discussion that struck me as relevant to the project we’re developing is the principle ‘modularity’ (Manovich 2001). This principle refers to how online media can be broken down into separate modules.  The question this principle begs about new media, however, is how each piece of separate media can function both separately and as a whole? This question has major implications on not only the way in which we think about media as a whole but also specifically to our project as well.

One of the major formal qualities we intended to incorporate into our project was cross platform which involves an inherent modularity. The potential for people to come across one singular piece of media from a platform is high and therefore it is important for context to be given, or for that piece of media to be able to function singularly. This understanding has changed the way in which I now think about how we are going to produce this project. Given the context of the project, a better outcome might be achieved if we eliminate the cross platform quality and incorporate another one. Our idea at the moment is to create a non fiction interactive piece focusing on a non fiction narrative based on the murder case of Maria Ridulph. Therefore, keeping each piece of media centralised to a singular platform might create more coherence and audience comprehension.

The interesting thing completing this project has allowed me to do is to understand new media theory from a producer’s perspective. As an audience I can easily acknowledge that cross platform modular media projects can function, for example a magazine company may produce a short video/article on snapchat with a link to ‘view the full article’ on their web page. If I am intrigued by the video then I may click on the link to the webpage. This kind of cross platform media functions both separately and as a whole. However, as a content creator I need to be able to create a media project that works cohesively whilst being modular. There are a number of options we could explore to achieve this including creating context through captions that urge the viewer to watch it chronologically. Or we could use other pieces of media such as photographs on other platforms and portray the narrative in a non linear manner.

Manovich, L 2001, ‘The Language of New Media’, The MIT Press, pp. 18-31