Re: <nettime> What *ARE* New Media?

[noah wardrip-fruin <noah@queeg.com>]

At 8:15 PM +1000 10/16/03, Phil Graham wrote:
>Lots of people ask me "what do you mean by 'new media'?". To me, it is a
>term that only has meaning in relation to older media at any given time in
>history.


That is one of the commonly discussed meanings. Lev Manovich's "What 
is New Media: 8 Propositions" gives us some others to bring into the 
mix:

1. New media is not cyberculture.

2. New Media as Computer Technology used as a Distribution Platform.

3. New Media as Digital Data Controlled by Software.

4. New Media as the Mix Between Existing Cultural Conventions and the 
Conventions of Software.

5. New Media as the Aesthetics that Accompanies the Early Stage of 
Every New Modern Media and Communication Technology.

6. New Media as Faster Execution of Algorithms Previously Executed 
Manually or Through Other Technologies.

7. New Media as the Encoding of Modernist Avant-Garde; New Media as Metamedia.

8. New Media as Parallel Articulation of Similar Ideas in Post WWII 
Art and Modern Computing.

[see http://www.manovich.net/new_media_images.html]


At this historical moment, Nick Montfort and I use new media to refer 
to the use of the digital computer as an expressive medium.


Noah

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