New Media Production 2 MUMT 303 Week 1 Sven-Amin Lembke
What is new media?
What is OLD media?
new media
new media
new media
new media ... • Internet • Websites • Computer multimedia • Computer games • CD-ROM, DVD • Virtual reality
So what’s new about it? • Or even revolutionary ? • Most obvious: ‣ New media is digital • Manovich (2001): The Language of New Media ‣ It has a more profound effect than the mere fact of being digital might imply
Before new media • Previous media revolutions that had significant impacts on cultural communication, e.g. ... • printing press in the 14th century ‣ affected the distribution of media • photography in the 19th century ‣ affected one type of media, i.e. still images • Yet, only one stage of cultural communication or one type of media representation per revolution
With new media • Still in the middle of the new media revolution, it affects ... • all stages of cultural communication ‣ distribution, acquisition, manipulation, production, storage • many different types of media representation ‣ text, still image, moving image, sound, spatial maps
What else is new? • Manovich (2001): ‣ We are dealing with product of "convergence of two separate historical trajectories: computing and media technologies . [...] The translation of all existing media into numerical data accessible through computers. The result is new media --- graphics, moving images, sounds, shapes, spaces, and texts that have become computable ". • Hence, not characterized by entirely ‘new’ media but instead introducing a new form of how it is internally represented.
Defining new media • Manovich (2001): ‣ "[T]exts distributed on a computer [...] are considered to be new media, whereas texts distributed on paper are not. Similarly, photographs that are put on a CD-ROM and require a computer to be viewed are considered new media; the same photographs printed in a book are not. Shall we accept this definition? If we want to understand the effects of computerization on a culture as a whole, I think it is too limiting. "
Manovich (2001): 5 principles of new media • Numerical representation • Modularity • Automation • Variability • Transcoding ‣ " Not every new media object obeys these principles. They should be considered not as absolute laws but rather general tendencies of a culture undergoing computerization. " - Manovich (2001)
Principle 1: numerical representation • All new media is numerical/digital ... • no matter whether created in digital environment or digitized from analog media. • 2 consequences for a new media object: ‣ it can be described formally in numerical terms ‣ it can be manipulated through algorithms
Principle 1: numerical representation • Numerical manipulation techniques based on media sharing a common representation can be applied universally, e.g. ... ‣ edge detection in images or onset detection in sounds ‣ contrast and brightness level modification in images or dynamic compression/expansion of audio • No such flexibility for analog media.
Principle 2: modularity • Modularity seen as “fractal structure of new media” ‣ just as a fractal has the same structure on different scales, a new media object has the same modular structure throughout • All of new media based on multi-level/hierarchical design • Modularity provides flexibility to manipulate/replace single elements without affecting the overarching structure as a whole
Principle 2: modularity • At the lowest, “particle” level: ‣ pixels in 2D-images, polygons in spatial structures, samples in audio, characters in text • At an intermediate level, e.g., at branches/containers: ‣ RGB-set of pixel data, analysis frame in audio processing application • At even higher level: ‣ multimedia video editing project, Flash environments
Principle 2: modularity • In short, a new media object consists of independent parts each of which consists of further smaller independent parts etc. • This is analogous to the modularity of: ‣ object-oriented programming ‣ links to other pages and data files within and between websites ‣ “abstractions” in Max/MSP/Jitter
Principle 3: automation • Given numerical representation and modularity of new media automated processing is facilitated. • “[With automation] human intentionality can be removed from the creative process, at least in part.” Manovich (2001)
Principle 3: automation • Low-level automation ‣ generation of shapes and spaces in vector graphics ‣ level correction and red-eye removal in still images ‣ in CGI-animation dedicated algorithms generate flocks of birds or crowds of people
Principle 3: automation • Higher-level automation based on semantic and syntactic interpretation of lower-level components ‣ algorithmic composition leading to fully automated music generation ‣ ‘wizards’ in software applications ‣ AI in computer games adapting to a player’s actions ‣ aiding management of large database through specialized search-functions, such as face or music recognition
Principle 4: variability • ‘Old’ media often inalterable and with predetermined order • Whereas numerical representation and modularity make new media alterable and customizable in many ways, e.g. ... ‣ fowarding e-mails, updating websites, reshuffling of presentation slides, freely customizable MP3- playlists
Principle 4: variability • Variability benefits from the ideas of ... ‣ templates: updating content in an else static framework ‣ scalability: presentation of content is scaled or adapted to screen resolution or data transfer rate of user
Principle 4: variability • “A[n] old media object was assembled in a media factory (such as a Hollywood studio). Millions of identical copies were produced from a master and distributed to all citizens . Broadcasting, cinema, and print media all followed this logic. In a postindustrial society, every citizen can construct her own custom lifestyle and ‘select’ her ideology from a large (but not infinite) number of choices. Rather than pushing the same objects/information to a mass audience, marketing now tries to target each individual separately .” - Manovich (2001)
Principle 5: transcoding • For new media there are ‘two sides of the same coin’: ‣ from the human POV new media objects are perceived as concrete representations or tools ‣ from the computerized POV new media objects are abstracted into a numerical representation most suitable for processing and storage ‣ e.g. an image from human POV seen in terms of shapes, colors, spatial location of visual objects vs. numerical representation into grid of pixels each containing values for color components
Principle 5: transcoding • According to Manovich (2001) the role of transcoding quite significant as it implies an interdependence between the two viewpoints: ‣ new media is shaped and designed by human culture, e.g. information represented numerically, GUIs designed based on considerations concerning user-friendliness ‣ likewise, human culture may be increasingly affected through our experience with new media and our knowledge of its underlying structural organization (in lists, records, arrays etc.)
Summary of characteristics of new media • digital/discretized representation • all digital media share common code • quick random access as opposed to sequential storage on older physical media • loss of information through discretization and data reduction • endless copying without data degradation • interactive nature
Discussion • How does Manovich’s (2001) theory correspond to our reality? • How modular and interchangeable are elements of the digital world really? • Don’t ‘old’ media also yield interdependences between a human and technical POVs? • Is ‘new’ media more accessible than ‘old’ media?
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