"these technologies themselves have become the greatest art works of today." This line illuminates the guiding principle to what Manovich is expressing in "New Media from Borges to HTML". The digital media age affords the visual artist a luxury unknown to other artists. The power to disseminate their work immediately and for free. Anything interactive, involving user-input, that's on the web today, is a constantly evolving organism designed by the preferences of 1.6 billion people.(1)
However, Manovich describes this medium can have its downsides. It allows the artist unprecedented power over their art, but the work also becomes infinitely manipulated. The designs take on a life of their own simply because once something sets foot into the digital realm, it instantly obtains infinite potential. There is a huge divide between static, physical object and a dynamic, digital object.
Manovich’s 8 categories to define new media attempt to create a fence around something that thrives in its limitless freedom. Digital representation, a relatable interface coated with a GUI, was initially supported mostly by digital artists. It didn’t become a utilitarian, public project until much later into its life. The digital landscape is sea of possibilities, but our tools of exploration are still in their infancy.
Sites like Stumbleupon take the internet user on a meta-cultural journey through the constant updating of the internet. Using the internet’s own content and keep it alive through a constant churning of human interaction.
1: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
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I heard about Stumbleupon this summer, is that part of Tumblr? I forget, anyway I think another rating site came out as part of Tumblr with a similar name this summer...sorry if I confused you!
ReplyDeleteStumbleupon is such a strange concept. The fact that we've gotten to a point where the internet is so inclusive and overwhelming that we can't proactively search on our own is bizzare. Now we can have an a button randomly generate web content that it thinks we might like. It is interesting to think about how the internet needs something to keep it alive, and that so many websites go un-looked at and die in weblivion.
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