A response of The Language of New Media: Chapter 1
Since I am thinking about a brand new media, this article was a good introduction of the language of new media. It describes a concept of the new media as well as historical movements of computing and media technologies which became an essential part of new media revolution.
Lev Manovich says that new media is distinguished from old media by the use of a computer for distribution and exhibition rather than production. For that reason, a computer is the most important component of the new media. However, continued improvements of computer technologies lagged behind media technologies. Manovich points out that the ‘Daguerreotype,’ invented by Louis Daguerre, was the first of the modern media technologies, and ‘the Analytical Engine,’ designed by Charles Babbage, was the beginning of the modern computer technologies. While media technologies were familiarized to the society, computer technologies needed more time to be accepted to our civilization.
In my point of view, the reason why this could happen is that there was a considerable difference in ease of accessibility and usage as well as a fun factor between them. Many people could buy a daguerreotype kit, use it, enjoy it, and share the know-how. In contrast, most people could not use and have fun with a computer. Consequently, if we want to make a new concept or invention adopted by society and civilization, it is a good strategy to ensure that the new concept be easy and fun.
The author also offers a fascinating relationship between cinema and the computer, as he shows the similarities of the elements of cinema and those of the first general-purpose computer, the Universal Turing Machine, designed by Alan Turing. Such a comparison shows that a system of other fields can be used as a metaphor when designing a brand new form of media.
In The Language of New Media, new media is shown to be created through a convergence of mass media and data processing. Perhaps the next wave will be driven through a global brain, the concept of explaining the evolutionary steps of new mankind caused by the worldwide spread of computer networks. While new media is focused on tangible physical objects, a brand new media should be focused on how to handle a mass mind, controlled by the global brain of human beings.
related links:
http://www.manovich.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Manovich
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Bloom |
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