Generative Content Creation Task 1

Review:

In his article The Language of New Media Len Manovich looks how to separate new media from the old one and goes through the history how it all become. He rises questions such if the use of something new like a computer in an old art from such is photography makes it new and can same images distributed in different forms called new and old media at the same time. For example if a photo is but on a CD-ROM and demands a computer for viewing it – it is new media, but if the same photo is printed to a book – it is old media, because printing on paper and photography are both old mediums. Also he draws very strong lines between media and computer development as he refers many times that computerization is basis for new media – that means all new media is created on computers.

In the second part of his article he points out five principles that make old media new.

• Numerical Representation
  That means that new media is digitalized and therefor it has numerical representation as it is recorded and presented with digital media. Most of it is automatically created on computers – that means all the zeros and ones that stores information about certain objects that can simply define through a mathematical code and could be manipulated with another mathematical code. For example a photograph in a computer is saved as a certain formula and that can be manipulated with another formula to adjust contrast or sharpness. We can not access photo psychically as all the process happens within computer's data base that is purely mathematical.
• Modularity
  every object inserted remains independent in the project and evert project can be used in larger one without objects used to create the project loosing its independence. For example writing essays on computer. One can insert images, URL addresses, shapes or sounds, but they all can edited independently within the project.
• Automation
  ... is divided to low-level and high-level automation. An example of low level automation would be when a computer program like Photoshop is correcting scanned image automatically according to program's standards. High-level automation is when it is demanded more from the program. Good example would be different bots and AI (artificial intelligence). They are programed in a way that humans can communicate with computers as they are communicating with other people. Therefore program needs to process information more and reply according to that.
• Variability
  This principle is explained as widely as the word “variability” sounds. It seems to be that every objects varies from other objects, but at the same time to be honest I did not really understand the difference it creates between old and new media.
• Transcoding
  This is the principle that expalains and defines the use of computers' influence on media that is created on them. Due the new possibilities and technology development it offers us more oppertunities to create what we want. For example CGI (Computer Generated Image) in films – computer helps us to build our own story world according to out imagination that it is almost impossible to create physically with the use of old media.

My thoughts while reading this article was mainly focused on the difference between old and new media. The same question can be adopted to filmmaking. People started to make films in 19^th century, but now almost the whole industry edits on computers and knowledge of editing on a flatbed is often not even required anymore to become a film editor. And because almost everyone in western world owns a computer and all the operation systems like Windows and MAC OS consist primary editing software then everyone can learn how to do it and everyone can make their own films if they want to. Also public and free, but yet popular, distribution channels like Youtube is, make it possible for everyone to make their art public. For example Youtube's Fact Sheet states out under statistics that people are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily. In fact, every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. That means that every average Joe can call himself an independent filmmaker. In my head it rises many questions one of them is the value of quality. It is obvious that large quantity decreases quality, but for example people have started to appreciate less and less video art, because their minds have been so overwhelmed as the internet is full of it. There should be clearer line between someone's published holiday videos and someone's work that was only possible to execute via those limited tools – video camera, editing software and Youtube.