The Language of New Media
Review of Lev Manovich’s The Language of New Media
Manovich brings up many substantial concepts ideal for present day media in “The Language of New Media.” The author in general has a broad range of selections that relate to new media in many different ways. Much of Manovich’s book is about theory; especially how socialist theory can be applied to new media. Other topics include feminism, the arts, gaming, and identity. As a novice to media theory, this book filled a lot of gaps in my knowledge. “New Media” means “Computer based artistic activities.” The beginning of the idea of new media did not become popularized until approximately 1980. In the beginning the new media art world had many problems at gaining acceptance within the art community. There was much hesitation from not only the government but the fine art world as well. An interesting piece of information that I was unaware of that this article stated was that in the 1990’s the art world in the United States was the most conservative cultural superpower in the world. Places such as countries in Europe were far ahead of the United States. A great hesitation among the art community was the idea of distribution. The idea of the gallery or auction house was taken completely out of the picture. This was intimidating to the art world because of its long-standing use of traditional practice. Another controversy was the idea of infinite copies. New media therefore requires one to be an interactive component in a work. This medium finally elevated itself out of the underground art community into the main stream of art. The complexity of the medium of New Media is still to this day a difficult way in which to solidly understand and break down. Also the discussion of cyber culture was intriguing in this essay. Its relation to our culture and how it can be used to edit down what it is we can see. For me the most interesting aspect of this essay is that our culture cannot put a definition of the idea of new media because with each new year some other form of society becomes reliant on the computer. Manovich places new media within the histories of visual and media cultures of the last few centuries. He discusses new media’s reliance on conventions of old media, such as the rectangular frame and mobile camera, and shows how new media works create the illusion of reality, address the viewer, and represent space. He also analyzes categories and forms unique to new media, such as interface and database. Manovich uses concepts from film theory, art history, literary theory, and computer science and also develops new theoretical constructs, such as cultural interface, spatial montage, and cinegratography. The theory and history of cinema play a particularly important role in the book. Among other topics, Manovich discusses parallels between the histories of cinema and of new media, digital cinema, screen and montage in cinema and in new media, and historical ties between avant-garde film and new media. Further, “New Media from Borges to HTML” parallels many ideas of media and design that are relevant in “The Language of New Media,” which play into affect in current society and media culture.
