Lev Manovich has identified how factors, such as computerisation, have changed medias function and social significance while new media takes its place as the staple of the digital age. Manovich "reduces all principles of new media to five: numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability and cultural transcoding", identifying the key factors which differentiate old and new media (Manovich, 2002, pg.44). All new media is now made up of "digital code" and so "becomes programmable", allowing computers to store, produce and distribute our media (Manovich, 2002, pg.49). Before technology was just a tool for media, just a calculator which aided us but with technological advancements it now shares in the creative production process.
Manovich notes how "human intentionally can be removed from the creative process, at least in part", software such as Photoshop, creates, edits and filters our content for us at the click of a button, taking most human interaction out of new media (Manovich, 2002, pg.53). Are we being limited by computers? By relying on automated technology, we take a back seat in creating media compared to the manual processes of old media. We live in a society "now concerned as much with accessing and re-using existing media as with creating new one" (Manovich, 2002, pg.55). If everyone is re-using existing media, this may stunt the creative possibility's of new media, leaving us with ideas that will never be imagined.
Artificial intelligence becomes ever more real, as computerised controls such as "software agents" filters our media for what it deems relevant, using our information and profiles to adapt new media around us (Manovich, 2002, pg.55). Creating a Big Brother mentality, as we are being monitored, controlled and restricted by computer technology. Although as seen in video games, this control is merely an illusion by "AI engines" which "use a variety of approaches to simulate human intelligence", restricting our own choices to fit within the rules of its own digital world (Manovich, 2002, pg.54). Though digitization has also given the user more control over time and media, such as through "random access"(Manovich, 2002, pg.67). By rejecting the "human-centered" order of old media such as the fixed order of videotapes, it allows time to be "managed, analysed and manipulated more easily"(Manovich, 2002, pg.67).
Bibliography
Manovich, L. (2002) The Language Of New Media, (Cambridge, Mass, :London MIT Press)
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