Summary #1 - "The Language of New Media" Lev Manovich

The first piece of literature I found was "The Language of New Media" by Lev Manovich. At a length of nearly 300 pages, I only read selections I felt were probably the most relevant. I read the first section, "What is New Media?" This included descriptions as to the principles of new media, and what new media is not. The five principles Manovich lists are:

1. Numerical Representation - by this, he means that New Media can be described numerically, or by using a mathematical function. Also, New Media is subject to algorithmic manipulation. He uses the examples of removing "noise" from a photo, change the contrast, etc. "In short, media becomes programable."

2. Modularity - Manovich also calls this the "fractal structure of new media." By this, he means that new media is comprised of more discrete samples, like pixels or characters or scripts. These smaller pieces are independent but are brought together to form larger-scale objects.

3. Automation - According to Manovich, the previous two principles (numerics and modularity) all for some automation on new media. "The human can be removed from the creative process, at least in part." An example of this would be filters in Photoshop, or templates in Word.

4. Variability - This means that new media is unfixed. It can be published in various formats and templates, and those can in turn be independently manipulated. In other words, it is "mutable" or "liquid."

5. Transcoding - Manovich says that new media now consists of two layers, the "computer" layer and the "cultural" layer. Examples of the computer layer would be: sorting and matching, function and variable, etc. The cultural layer could consist of: story and plot, comedy and tragedy. The computer layer is the functional layer, whereas the culture layer is more of the meaning behind the function from a human perspective.