New Cultural Media

The Language of New Media
Lev Manovich (2001)
Prolouge, Introduction, Chapter 2 and 3

Manovich refers new media to computer media which consists of web sites, virtual worlds, multimedia, computer games, interactive installations, cinema and human-computer interfaces. The book examines in which ways the new media relies on older cultural forms and languages, and in what ways it also breaks with them. It's interesting when Manovich is examining media of our present time through the lens of a movie enthusiast of the old school. He surely understands the birth and development of cinema and its impact on the culture. The author also takes on other perspectives to create bridges between old and new media.


Man with a Movie Camera

The avant-garde film Man with a Movie Camera (clip 1 of 9 on youtube) made by the Russian Vertov in 1929 is mentioned throughout the book. The film had no well-definied language of that time with neither story or dialog. It is instead filled with an endless use of techniques. Normal footage morphs into manipulated footage, new techniques appear one after another creating 'effects'. A new language is born in cinema. We start to realize all possibilities that exist with the movie camera. The film is an eye-opener in all types of media, letting us understand the possibilities offered by e.g. web sites, multimedia, interactive productions as long as we are willing to try out new ways in the medium.


Cultural interfaces

In 'Interface culture' Stephen Johnson claims that all culture, past and present, is filtered through the interface when the web browser made such an impact with the growth of internet in the 1990s. Manovich elaborates on the interface as a crucial part in the culture by using the term 'cultural interface' to describe human-computer-culture interface. Manovich means that as all forms of culture becomes computer-based - texts, photographs, films, music, virtual environments - and we are now interfacing to a culture encoded in digital form. He also discusses how interface plays a crucial role in todays information society as work and leisure not only involve a lot of computer use, but they also converge in the same interfaces. Erasing the border between professional and amateur, creator and user has propelled a lot of users to become culture producers. The interface isn't the only cause for this development. Software programs like web browsers, search engines, word processors, media editing applications are used by both producers and users which erases the border between work and play. The difference in functionality and cost between professional and amatuer programs are not huge as it was with old media. Marcus also discusses this and mentions the open source software being made available for free. To put this all in perspective - film equipment in old media did cost a fortune in comparison to what is needed today to create new media.


Compositing versus montage

Compositing is mentioned as one type of operation used frequently in creation of new media. Digital compositing is the process of combining movie image sequence and stills using many layers into a single sequence. Operation is used in a lot in movies like Star Wars 1, Spiderman etc with the use of blue-screen.


Seeds of this type of operation can be found in movies made by Jean-Luc Godard when moving from one image to another by slowly and gradually switching between the two. Images flickering back and forth until continuing the story. Godard also mixed two, three images that gradually fade in and out, but never disappear completly. Compositing is often described as the opposite to the montage operation. Whereas the goal of compositing is to create a seamless, virtual space and perceive it as a whole even though it consists of hundreds or even thousand of layers, the aim of montage is to create visual, stylistic, semantic and emotional discernment between different elements. Although digital compositing often is used in the described way it does not always has to be the goal. Borders between different worlds dont have to be erased. The effect can be very significant when not merging everything together smoothly. In a new movie "Public enemies" by Michael Mann the scenery takes place in the 1920s. Mann sometimes uses compositing withouth making it seamless and thereby giving it a older feeling. Ontological montage is another example of not putting all elements in a seamless whole. It advocates the coexistence of incompatible elements within the same time and space. This creates a variety of perspectives in a scene, which lets the user interact with their chosen perspective without clashing with the other perspectives.


Continuation or not

Further discussing the operations montage and compositing, though in another perspective - how the different operations creates different flows. Much of new media has a flow of continuation. Looking at computer games with their smooth composites, morphing, uninterupted navigation creates an aesthetics of continuity. First-person shooters e.g. Quake, Doom move from beginning to end through a 3-D space. Virtual media has the same type of flow without cuts. Old media relied on montage with instant changes in time and space both in litterature and cinema. The flow is totally different with cuts in time and space creating a narrative that lets the user get into story more hands on. Deciding which one is the best is irrelevant since they both serves their different purpose. The specific context is what should decide which type to choose. Creating a feeling of being in the present time as well as getting a realistic feeling - the flow of continuation could be a better choice. When focusing on the story or wanting to give the user/spectator many perspectives through different scenes - the flow of the old media is problably a better choice. Even though we're getting the narrative of continuation more and more with the development of virtual spaces, the narrative of old media will always be an essential way of presenting media.


New media relying on old media

Even though Manovich sometimes is criticizing the new media and putting old media on a pedestal, his interest of the new is always fresh, and often relates new media to great art and technology of the past. Per-Henric discusses in his blog how we can be able to make the users actually take action in interaction design and not only making her understand and feel the possible actions. Maybe the answer lies somewhere in Manovichs explanations on how new media relies on older cultural forms, techniques, methods, logic. It gets one to understand the importance of building new interaction media design with the old media in mind to be able to connect with its users.