What Is New Media? – Explanation of the 5 principles.
Lev Manovich looks at new media under five principles:
Numerical Representation is the form of numerical bits when new media is digitally converted from analog. This allows the media to be processed by computer after it has been quantified into discrete units. Digitization of new media is necessary in order for our computers to process (display) it, as well as manipulate with programming and algorithms. For example, a color film picture that is digitally converted to use in Photoshop will look like it has infinite colors, but it actually has a quantified number – 16.77 million.
Modularity means new media is broken down into elements to combine and form the artwork. They can consist of sounds, shapes, behaviors or images. Each of these pieces of the new media art can be changed, deleted or combined with other pieces independent of the overall context. Also, these elements can be stored and created in different computers and loaded from different forms of digital storage or from the Internet or local network.
Automation can make certain processes of new media art effortless (auto-corrections, color filters). Thanks to the modularity and numerical coding of digitized art, many algorithms and programs today automate the creation of art such as a CAD file to print something in a 3D printer or pressing a button to slow a video’s frame rate. This automation had come to the point where we can now interact with new media art and expect a reaction (virtual reality, games).
Variability of a single piece of new media art is now commonplace and easy to do thanks to the principles of modularity, numerical coding and automation. Multiple variations of art can be made, all originating from the initial piece. Users of media today can customize the original work and make it to their own interpretation. This principle gives freedom to enjoy new media art in a way we enjoy the most.
Cultural Transcoding is a principle that says new media art in its pure digital form is meaningless to us because we only see the highest level output of these digital forms. It categorizes new media art into a cultural layer (what cultures see and interpret) and a computer layer (what computers see and interpret). These two layers influence each other due to the computer’s characteristics in its transcoding to us (our culture).
A Remix Manifesto – Comments
Copying music to be remixed and using samples for new music has been going on for a long time. Many songs today have been created because of the new ideas generated from previous songs, allowing more varieties styles of music especially in Hip Hop and Electronic Music. Taking some samples off music to create new tracks will not suddenly stop people from buying the original work because the remixed music and new tracks are not the same, and therefore would not affect original artists financially. I was excited to see Girl Talk mash up multiple songs and didn’t think of him as “stealing”. It was more of inspiration to help him develop new tracks. I’m sure Elvis Costello fans would not suddenly stop listening to Elvis Costello and go out to Coachella raving with adolescents instead. As a big EDM fan, I hear many samples in songs remixed, mashed up and literally torn to bits – transformed into something new, innovative and exciting. Many popular tracks today are remixed and released by various producers and DJs (of course the original artist is recognized). Even the instrumental sounds themselves are usually created by musicians for the sole purpose of being used in making music. Of course you still need to buy their drum sounds or synth patches, but the sounds are meant to build something new, not just to listen. I am sure the majority of music listeners don’t pay much attention to where the original songs come from, or they don’t even know. Does it matter if the sole purpose is to enjoy it? It would be hard to rationalize that to a giant recording company, that takes at least half of the revenue from hard-working artists anyway to line their pockets. How could you? They see music as a revenue stream, not much else.
The technical and creative ability to take random samples and make them into entertaining forms of music is in itself an art form. I am sure not everyone can just take bits of songs and do what Girl Talk does; the beat-matching of different genres and sequencing so it doesn’t sound like you’re listening to four different songs at once. This new remix culture opens the door to other inspired artists who look to set their own style from the music in the past, using high tech music devices, DJ equipment and effects. I really don’t see anything wrong with that! I think in the future more music will be freely available to the public to create it in their own custom way, making a bespoke musical culture from open source music. With today’s interconnected society there could be so much more creativity being unleashed from all over the world. I think it will become a necessity due to our short attention span culture and music’s lifespan shrinking. Remixed music will keep the original work alive and in our memories longer. In additions, with so many methods to alter sounds technically, we wouldn’t even recognize the original sample at all! Could Metallica sue if a guitar riff was pitched up two octaves, reversed and echoing with and added wobble-phase effect through a high-pass filter? That would be weird because it would sound like a malfunctioning buzzer.
On the other hand, I also believe that flat out pirating of full songs (or anything else) for free should be restricted, as it is not fair to the original artists who rely on their artistry for income. If all music was made and freely distributed, then artists would not want to make any more music. The development of subscription-based streaming technology and online purchasing such as iTunes and Spotify helped the musicians keep some revenue and allows us to still enjoy new music coming from them. This in turn allows more opportunity for samples to be used in yet more new music. The process builds on itself. Obviously this will not stop free music distribution completely but at least hinder it. I think that’s only fair.
Maybe someone will win a Grammy for best remix of the year…oh wait, that already exists.
Seeing the Brick – Comments
The reading mentions how animation has been “dismissed as a novelty and relegated to a children’s audience.” I agree that a majority of cartoons are designed for children, so the appreciation as an art form would be too sophisticated for a young genre to comprehend. Nevertheless, today we see numerous films dedicated to an older crowd, from teens to adults. Examples would be Japanese manga films (some including graphic and sexual scenes suited only for adults) and the Heavy Metal sci-fi fantasy cartoons. Also, cartoons are just one form of animation but since they are the most popular at a commercial level they are scrutinized the most.
I do think there is much more to animation as an art form than children’s cartoons. With the extensive use of animation tools in today’s digital world, an artist can go beyond still-life art and portray their stories or feelings in a new dimension of movement; “‘give life to'” the art. We have seen examples of this with picture-by-picture animation techniques and moving through different Photoshop layers.
Animation, like music is an art form that can be exploited commercially. Unfortunately this removes its sophistication and work behind the animation, and leaves us with the entertainment value and its “story”. Today’s tech-heavy CGI-based cartoons (Disney) requires many month of meticulous technical work and computer processing power but as a primarily young audience they do not see this value. It is all about grabbing attention and invoking immediate excitement.
Digital Technologies as a Tool – Comments
Paul states that “all media will eventually be absorbed into the digital medium”. I definitely agree with that because we do live in the Information Age, surrounded by digital tools, media and devices. It would be as no surprise that today’s artwork will be created/altered by digital means. It is similar to today’s music. Pop, Hip-Hop and Electronic Dance Music (EDM) are the most popular and lucrative musical styles, and they are heavily – if not completely created with digital “instruments”, computer programs and synthesizers.
This is definitely not a bad thing. It provides today’s artist with digital enlightenment; much more freedom of expression thanks to the almost limitless ways photographs and raw art can be created. Techniques such as morphing and collaging are some examples. We also see art being made with the help of outside variables contributing to the work, even if the results are random. Nevertheless, artists can discover how this randomness can be made into an expression of themselves. Examples from the reading include Jochem Hendricks’ eye drawings and Warren Neidich’s conversation maps.
Digital medium manipulation of art makes us think of art in a different way and given it a “cool” factor, whereas more traditional paintings were more focused on realism and emotion. That is not to say the newer cannot be real/emotional, but today artists can do way more, and make us feel and think in much more different ways such as admiration of the techniques used to make the art and illusionary techniques (buildings with no doors and faces morphed from multiple faces). Photography and raw art are now used to make art together, creating hybrid works where sometimes you can’t even tell if the art came from a photo or vice versa.
The Medium is the Massage – Comments
Humanity and its societies communications mediums have evolved over thousands of years. In today’s information age, we are constantly exposed to vast amounts of information in a non-discriminatory manner. Anxiously, we try to manage and find relevancy in the information, adding unnecessary stress.
McLuhan’s article is a slightly paranoid observation of this evolution. He states that today’s electric technology medium “is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life.” The only part I disagree with is the “every aspect…” part. I really don’t think how I get my information changes my personal life; reading a newspaper or reading it off a website or mobile device. In addition to this, I do not see a “great alienation between generations” just because of the advances in communications media. Generation X (like me) do not look at Generation Z (today’s youth) as some enlightened race that “instinctively understands – the electric drama”. I only see them as a younger generation that’s accustomed to gathering information on electronic devices more than older generations. The change in communication medium is portrayed in a negative aspect, which I don’t agree with.
Wars, revolutions and uprisings have occurred since the beginning of time. I do not see them as interfaces to anything but as results of communication and negotiation failures. If we now transmit/receive all this information today and are so careful in what we say or do, and are now becoming one giant interdependent society, then why are we still having these failures?
In my opinion and conclusion, the electric medium has allowed communication across borders at a global scale. However I still believe we are being isolated in ourselves, reducing any actual human interaction and making us socially inept.