Lev Manovich

What is New Media?:Eieht Propositions

From "New Media from Borgesto HTML," commissionedfor The New Media Reader,
editedby Noah Wardrip-Fruinand Nick Montforl, The MIT Press,2002).

I now want to go through otherpossibleconceptsof new media and its histories

(iricluding a few proposedby the presentauthorelsewhere).Here are eight answers;
without a doubt. more can be inventedif desired.

1. New mediaversusc)zberculture.
To begin with. we may distinguishbetweennew mediaand cyberculture.In my view
they representtwo distinct fields of research.I would definecybercultureas the study of
various socialphenomenaassociatedwith Internetand othernew forms of network
communication.Examplesof what falls undercyberculturestudiesare online
communities,onlinemulti-playergaming,the issueof onlineidentity,the sociologyand
tl-reethnographyof email usage,cell phoneusagein variouscommunities;the issuesof
genderand ethnicity in Internetusage;and so on. Notice that the emphasisis on the
social phenomena;cyberculturedoesnot directly deal with new cultural objectsenabled
by network communicationtechnologies.The studyof theseobjectsis the domain of new
media.ln addition,new mediais concernedwith cultural objectsand paradigmsenabled
by all forms of computingand not just by networking.To summarize:cybercultureis
locusedon the social and on networking;new mediais focusedon the cultural and
computing.

2. New Media as ComputerTechnologyusedas a DistributionPlatform.

What are thesenew cultural objects?Given that digital computingis now usedin most
areasof cultural production,from publishingand advertisingto filmmaking and
architecture,how can we singleout the areaof culturethat specificallyowes its existence
to computing?In my book TheLanguageof |lew Media I begin the discussionof new
rnediaby invoking its definition which canbe deducedfrom how the term is usedin

popularpress:new media are the cultural objectswhich usedigital computertechnology

for distribution and exhibition.Thus,Internet,Web sites,computermultimedia,computer
galnes.CD-ROMs and DVD, Virlual Reality,and computer-generated
specialeffectsall
fall under new media.Other cultural objectswhich usecomputingfor productionand
storagebut not for final distribution-television programs,featurefilms, magazines,
booksand otherpaper-based
publications,etc.* arenot new media.
The problemswith this definition arethree-fold.Firstly, it hasto be revisedevery
few years,as yet anotherpart of culturecomesto rely on computingtechnologyfor
distribr-rtion(for instance,the shift from analogto digital television;the shift from filmbasedto digital projectionof featurefilms in movie theatres;e-books,and so on)
Secondly,we may suspectthat eventuallymost forms of culturewill usecomputer
distribution,and thereforethe term "new media" definedin this way will lose any
specificity.Thirdly, this definition doesnot tell us anlthing aboutthe possibleeffectsof
computer-based
distributionon the aestheticsof what is being distributed.In other words,
do Web sites.computermultimedia,computergames,CD-ROMs and Virtual Reality all
have somethingin commonbecausethey are deiiveredto the user via a computer?Only
if the answeris at leastpartial yes,it makessenseto think aboutnew media as a useful
theoretical
category.

3. New Media as Digital DataControlledby Software.

The Languageof New Media is basedon the assumptionthat, in fact, all cultural
objectsthat rely on digital representation
and computer-based
delivery do sharea number
of commonqualities.In the book I articulatea numberof principlesof new media:
numericalrepresentation,
modularity,automation,variability, and transcoding.I do not
assulnethat any computer-based
culturalobjectwill necessarybe structuredaccordingto
theseprinciplestoday. Rather,thesearetendenciesof a cultureundergoing
computerizationthat graduallywill manifestthemselvesmore and more. For instance,the
principle of variability statesthat a new mediacultural objectmay exist in potentially
infinite difl-erentstates.Today the examplesof variability are commercialWeb sites
programmedto customizeWeb pagesfor eachuseras sheis accessingthe parlicular site,

or DJs' remixesof alreadyexistingrecordings;tomorrowthe principleof variabilitymay

alsostructurea digital film which will similarlyexistin multipleversions.
I deducetheseprinciples,or tendencies,from the basicfact of digital
representationof media.New mediais reducedto digital datathat can be manipulatedby
softwareas any other data"This allows automatingmany media operations,to generate
multipleversionsof the sameobject,etc.For instance,oncean imageis represented
as a
matrix of numbers,it can be manipulatedor evengeneratedautomaticallyby running
variousalgorithms,suchas sharpen,blue, colorize. changecontrast,etc.
More generally,extendingwhat I proposedin my book, I could say that two basic
ways in which computersmodel reality - through datastructuresand algorithms- can
also be appliedto media onceit is represented
digitally. In other words, given that new
r-nediais digital datacontrolledby particular"cultural" software,it make senseto think of
any new media obiect in terms of parliculardatastructuresand/orparticularalgorithmsit
ernbodies.Here are the examplesof datastructures:an imagecan be thoughtof as a twoditncnsionalarray (x, y), while a movie can be thoughtof as a three-dimensionalarray (x,
y, t). Thinking aboutdigital mediain termsof algorithms,we discoverthat many of these
algorithmscan be appliedto any media(suchas copy,cut,paste,compress,.find.match)
while somestill retainmedia specificity.For instance,one can easily searchfor a
particulartext string in a text but not for a particularobject in an image.Conversely,one
can compositea numberof still or moving imagestogether,but not different texts. These
differenceshave to do with different semioticlogics of different media in our culture: for
example.we are readyto readpracticallyany imageor a compositeof imagesas being
meaningful,while for a text stringto be meaningfulwe requirethat it obeysthe laws of
grammar.On the other hand,languagehas a priori discretestructure(a sentenceconsists
fi'om words which consistfrom morphemes,and so on) that makesit very easily to
automatevariousoperationson it (suchas search,match,replace,index),while digital
representationof imagesdoesnot by itself allow for automationof semanticoperations.

4. New Media as the Mix BetweenExisting Cultural Conventionsand the Conventionsof

Software.

As a particulartype of media is turnedinto digital datacontrolledby software,we

may expectthat eventuallyit will fully obey the principlesof modularity,variability, and
automation.Howevet, in practicetheseprocessesmay take a long time and they do not
proceedin a linear lashion- rather,we witness"unevendevelopment."For instance,
today somemedia are alreadytotally automatedwhile in other casesthis automation
hardly exists- eventhoughtechnologicallyit canbe easilyimplemented.
Let us take as the examplecontemporaryHollywood film production.Logically
we could haveexpectedsomethinglike the following scenario.An individualviewer
receivesa customizedversionof the film that takesinto accounther/hispreviousviewing
preferences,currentpreferences,and marketingprofile. The film is completelyassembled
on the fly by AI softwareusing pre-definedscript schemas.The softwarealso generates,
agaiuon the fly characters,dialog and sets(this makesproductplacementparticularly
easy)that are taken from a massive"assets"database.
The reality today is quite different.Softwareis usedin someareasof film
productionbut not in others.While somevisualsmay be createdusing computer
animation.cinemastill centersaroundthe systemof humanstarswhosesalariesamount
for a large percentof a film budget.Similarly, script writing (and countlessre-writing) is
also trustedto humans.In short,the computeris kept out of the key "creative" decisions,
and is delegatedto the positionof a technician.
If we look at anothertype of contemporarymedia- computergames- we will
discoverthat they follow the principle of automationmuch more thoroughly.Game
charactersare modeledin 3D; they move and speakunder softwarecontrol. Softwarealso
decideswhat happensnext in the game,generatingnew characters,spacesand scenarios
in responseto users'behavior.It is not hardto understandwhy automationin computer
gamesis much more advancedthan in cinema.Computergamesare one of the few
cultural fbrms "native " to computers;they begunas singularcomputerprograms(before
turning into a complexmultimediaproductionswhich they aretoday) - ratherthan being
an alreadyestablishedmedium (suchas cinema)which is now slowly undergoing
computerization.
Given that the principlesof modularity,automation,variability and transcoding
are tendenciesthat slow and unevenlymanifestthemselves,is there a more preciseway

to describenew media,as it existstoday?TheLanguageof New Media analyzesthe

languageof contemporarynew media(or, to put this differently,"early new media") as
tl'remix (we can also use softwaremetaphorsof "morph" or "composite")betweentwo
different setsof cultural forces,or cultural con.rentions:on the one hand,the conventions
of alreadymaturecultural forms (suchas a page,a rectangularframe,a mobile point of
view) and, on the other hand,the conventionsof computersoftwareand, in particular,of
I{CI, as they developeduntil now.
Let me illustratethis ideawith two examples.In modernvisual culture a
representational
imagewas somethingone gazedat, ratherthan interactedwith. An image
was alsoone continuousrepresentational
field, i.e. a singlescene.In the 1980sGUI
redefinedan image as a figure-groundoppositionbetweena non-interactive,passive
ground (typically a desktoppattern)and activeicons and hyperlinks(suchas the icons of
documentsand applicationsappearingon the desktop).The treatmentof representational
imagesin new mediarepresentsa mix betweenthesetwo very different conventions.An
irnageretainsits representational
function while at the sametime it is treatedas a set of
hot spots("image-map").This is the standardconventionin interactivemultimedia,
colxputergamesand Web pages.So while visually an image still appearsas a single
corttinuousfleld, in fact it is brokeninto a numberof regionswith hyperlinksconnected
to tl-rese
regions,so clicking on a region opensa new page,or re-startsgamenarrative,
This exampleillustrateshow a HCI conventionis "superimposed"(in this case,
both metaphoricallyand literally, as a designerplaceshot spotsover an existing image)
over an older representational
convention.Another way to think aboutthis is to say that a
techniquenormally usedfor control and datamanagementis mixed with a techniqueof
fictional representationand fictional narration.I will useanotherexampleto illustratethe
oppositeprocess:how a cultural conventionnormally usedfor fictional representation
and narrationis "superimposed"over softwaretechniquesof datamanagementand
presentation.The cultural conventionin this exampleis the mobile cameramodel
borrowed from cinema. In TheLanguageof New Media I analyzehow it becamea
genericinterfaceusedto accessany type ofdata:

Originally developedas part of 3D computergraphicstechnologyfor suchapplicationsas

computer-aideddesign,flight simulatorsand computermovie making, during the 1980's
and 1990'sthe cameramodel becameas much of an interfaceconventionas scrollable
windows or cut and pasteoperations.It becamean acceptedway for interactingwith any
datawhich is representedin threedimensions- which, in a computerculture,means
literally anythingand everything:the resultsof a physicalsimulation,an architectural
site, designof a new molecule,statisticaldata,the structureof a computernetwork and so
on. As computerculture is graduallyspatializingall representations
and experiences,they
becomesubjectedto the camera'sparticulargrammarof dataaccess.Zoom,tilt, pan and
track: we now usetheseoperationsto interactwith dataspaces,models,objectsand
bodies.
To sum up: new mediatoday can be understoodas the mix betweenolder cultural
conventionsfor datarepresentation,
accessand manipulationand newer conventionsof
datarepresentation,
accessand manipulation.The "old" dataare representations
of visual
reality and humanexperience,i.e., images,text-basedand audio-visualnarratives- what
we normally understandby "culture." The "new" datais numericaldata.
As a result of this mix, we get suchstrangehybrids as clickable"image-maps,"
navigablelandscapesof financial data,QuickTime (which was definedas the format to
representany time-baseddatabut which in practiceis usedexclusivelyfor digital video),
animatedicons- a kind of micro-moviesof computerculture- and so on.
As can be seen,this parlicularapproachto new media assumesthe existenceof
l-ristoricallyparticularaestheticsthat characterizes
new media,or "early new media,"
today. (We rnay also call it the "aestheticsof early informationculture.") This aesthetics
resultsfi'om tl,e convergenceof historicallyparticularcultural forces:alreadyexisting
culturalconventionsand the conventionsof HCI. Therefore,it couldnot haveexistedin
the past and without changesit is unlikely to stay for a long time. But we can also define
new media in the oppositeway: as specificaestheticfeatureswhich keep re-appearingat
an early stageof deploymentof every new modernmediaand telecommunication
technoloqies.

5 .N e w

estheticsthat Accom

taseof Everv New

Media and CommunicationTechnoloqy.

Ratherthan reservingthe term "new media" to refer to the cultural usesof current
computerand computer-based
networktechnologies,someauthorshave suggestedthat

every modern media and telecommunicationtechnologypassesthrough its "new media

stage."In other words, at somepoint photography,telephone,cinema,televisioneach
were "new media." This perspectiveredirectsour researchefforts:ratherthan trying to
identity what is unique aboutdigital computersfunctioningas media creation,media
distribution and telecommunicationdevices,we may insteadlook for certainaesthetic
techniquesand ideologicaltropeswhich accompanyevery new modernmedia and
telecommunicationtechnologyat the initial stageof its introductionand dissemination.
Here are a few examplesof suchideologicaltropes:new technologywill allow for better
democracy;it will give us a betteraccessto the "real" (by offering "more immediacy"
and/orthe possibility "to representwhat beforecould not be represented");it will
contributeto "the erosionof moral values";it will destroythe "natural relationship
betweenhumansand the world" by "eliminating the distance"betweenthe observerand
the observed.
And here are two examplesof aestheticstrategiesthat seemto often accompany
the appearanceof a new mediaand telecommunicationtechnology.Gllot surprisingly,
theseaestheticstrategiesare directly relatedto ideologicaltropesI just mentioned).In the
rnid 1990sa numberof filmmakersstartedto useinexpensivedigital cameras(DV) to
createfilms characterizedby a documentarystyle (for instance,Timecode,Celebration,
Mi/une). Ratherthan treatinglive actionas a raw materialto be later re-arrangedin postproductiot't,thesefilmmakersplacepremierimportanceon the authenticityof the actors'
perfbrmances.The smallnessof DV equipmentallows a filmmaker to literally be inside
the action as it unfolds.In additionto adoptinga more intimatefilmic approach,a
lllmmaker can keep shootingfor a whole durationof a 60 or 120minute DV tape as
opposedto the standardten-minutefilm roll. This givesthe filmmaker and the actors
rnorefieedom to improvisearounda theme,ratherthan being shackledto the tightly
scriptedshort shotsof traditionalfilmmaking. (In fact the lengthof Time Code exactly
correspondsto the length of a standardDV tape.)
Theseaestheticstrategiesfor representingthe "real" which at first may appearto
be unique to digital revolution in cinemaare in fact not unique.DV-style filmmaking has
a predecessorin an internationalfilmmaking movementthat begunin the late 1950sand
unfoldedthroughoutthe 1960s.Called"directcinema,""candid"cinema,"uncontrolled"

"observational"
cinema.
cinema,or cindmavdritd("cinematruth"), it alsoinvolved
filmmakers using lighter and more mobile (in comparisonto what was availablebefore)
equipment.Like today'sDV realists,"the l960s "directcinema"proponentsavoided
tight stagingand scripting,preferringto let eventsunfold naturally.Both then and now,
the filmmakersusednew filmmaking technologyto revolt againstthe existing cinema
conventionsthat were perceivedas beingtoo artificial. Both then and now, the key word
of this revolt was the same:"immediacy."
My secondexampleof similar aestheticstrategiesre-appearingdealswith the
developmentof moving imagetechnologythroughoutthe nineteenthcentury,and the
developmentof digital technologiesto displaymoving imageson a computerdesktop
duringthe 1990s.In the first part of the 1990s,as computer'sspeedkept gradually
increasing,the CD-ROM designershavebeenableto go from a slide show format to the
superimpositionof small moving elementsover staticbackgroundsand finally to fullframe moving images.This evolutionrepeatsthe nineteenthcenturyprogression:from
sequencesof still images(magic lanternslidespresentations)
to moving charactersover
staticbackgrounds(for instance,in Reynaud'sPraxinoscopeTheater)to full motion (the
Lumieres'cinematograph).
Moreover,the introductionof QuickTimeby Apple in 1991
can be comparedto the introductionof the Kinetoscopein 1892:both were usedto
presentshort loops,both featuredthe imagesapproximatelytwo by three inchesin size,
both called fbr private viewing ratherthan collectiveexhibition.Culturally, the two
technologies
alsofunctionedsimilarly:asthe latesttechnological"marvel." If in the

early

parlorswherepeep-holemachinespresented
1890sthe public patronizedKinetoscope
them with the latestinvention-

tiny moving photographsarrangedin short loops -

cxactly a hundredyearslater,computeruserswere equallyfascinatedwith tiny

QuickTime Movies that turneda computerin a film projector,howeverimperfect.
Finally, the Lumieres'first film screeningsof 1895which shockedtheir audienceswith
hugemoving imagesfound their parallelin 1995CD-ROM titles wherethe moving
imagefinally fills the entirecomputerscreen(for instance,in Johnny_Mnemonic
computergame,basedon the film by the sametitle.) Thus,exactlya hundredyearsafter
cinemawas officially "born," it was reinventedon a computerscreen.

Interestingas they are,thesetwo examplesalso illustratethe limitations of

thinking aboutnew media in termsof historicallyrecurrentaestheticstrategiesand
ideologicaltropes.While ideologicaltropesindeedseemre-appearing
ratherregularly,
many aestheticstrategies
may only reappeartwo or threetimes.Moreover,some
strategiesand/ortropescan be alreadyfound in the first part of the nineteenthcentury
while othersonly make their first appearance
much more recently.In order for this
approachto be truly useful it would be insufficientto simply namethe strategiesand
tropesand to recordthe momentsof their appearance;
instead,we would haveto develop
a much more comprehensiveanalysiswhich would correlatethe history of technology
with social,politicaland economicalhistoriesof the modernperiod.
So far my definitionsof new mediahavefocusedon technology;the next three
definitions will considernew mediaas materialre-articulation,or encoding,of purely
cultural tendencies- in shoft,as ideasratherthan technologies.

6. New Media as FasterExecutionof Algorithms Previousl)'ExecutedManuall),or

ThrouqhOtherTechnoloqies.
A moderndigital computeris a programmablemachine.This simply meansthat the same
computercan executedifferent algorithms.An algorithmis a sequenceof stepsthat need
to be fbllowed to accomplisha task.Digital computersallow us to executemost
algorithmsvery quickly,however,in principlean algorithm,sinceit is just a sequence
of
simple steps,can be also executedby a human.althoughmuch more slowly. For instance,
a humancan sort files in a particularorder,or count the numberof words in a text, or cut
a part of an image and pasteit in a differentplace.
This realizationgivesus a new way to think aboutboth digital computing,in
general,and new media,in particular,as a massivespeed-upof variousmanual
techniquesthat all have alreadyexisted.Consider,for instance,the computer'sability to
representobjectsin linear perspectiveand to animatesuchrepresentations.
When you
nlove your characterthroughthe world in a first personshootercomputergame(suchas
Quake),or when you move your viewpoint arounda 3D architecturalmodel, a computer
re-calculatesperspectivalviews for all the objectsin the frame many times every second
(in the caseof currentdesktophardware,frame ratesof 80 framesof secondare not

uncommon).But we shouldrememberthat the algorithmitself was codified during the

Renaissance
in ltaly, and that, beforedigital computerscamealong (that is, for aboutfive
hundredyears)it was executedby humandraftsmen.Similarly, behindmany other new
media techniquesthere is an algorithmthat, beforecomputing,was executedmanually.
(Of coursesinceart has alwaysinvolved sometechnology- even as simple as a stylus for
making marks on stone- what I meanby "manually" is that a humanhad to
systematicallygo through every stepof an algorithmhimself, even if he was assistedby
someimagemaking tools.) Consider,for instance,anothervery popularnew media
technique:making a compositefrom differentphotographs.Soonafter photographywas
invented.suchnineteenthcenturyphotographersas Henry PeachRobinsonand OscarG.
Reiilanderwere alreadycreatingsmooth"combinationprints" by putting together
multiplephotographs.
While this approachto thinking aboutnew mediatakesus away from thinking
aboutit purelyin technologicalterms,it hasa numberof problemsof its own.
Substantiallyspeedingup the executionof an algorithmby implementingthis algorithm
in softwaredoesnot just leavethings as they are.The basicpoint of dialecticsis that a
substantialchangein quantity (i.e., in speedof executionin this case)leadsto the
emergenceof qualitativelynew phenomena.The exampleof automationof linear
perspectiveis a casein point. Dramaticallyspeedingup the executionof a perspectival
algorithm makespossiblepreviouslynon-existentrepresentational
technique:smooth
movementthrough a perspectivalspace.In otherwords,we get not only quickly
producedperspectivaldrawingsbut also computer-generated
movies and interactive
computergraphics.
The technologicalshifts in the history of "combinationprints" also illustratethe
cultural dialecticsof transformationof quantityinto quality. In the nineteenthcentury,
painstakinglycrafted"combinationprints" represented
an exceptionratherthan the norm.
h'rthe twentieth century,new photographictechnologiesmadepossiblephotomontage
that quickly becameone of the basicrepresentational
techniquesof modern visual
culture.And finally the arrival of digital photographyvia softwarelike Photoshop,
scanners.
and digital camerasin the late 1980sand 1990snot only madephotomontage
much more omnipresentthan beforebut it also fundamentallyalteredits visual

characteristics.In placeof graphicand hard-edgecompositionspioneeredby MoholyNagy and Rodchenkowe now have smoothmulti-imagecompositeswhich use
transparency.blur, colorizationand other easilyavailabledigital manipulationsand
which often incorporatetypographythat is subjectedto exactlythe samemanipulations.
(Thus in post-Photoshopvisual culturethe type becomesa subsetof a photo-based
irnage.)To seethis dramaticchange,it is enoughto comparea typical music video from
of
1985and a typicalmusicvideo from 1995:within ten years,visualaesthetics
photomontagehave undergonea fundamentalchange.
Finally, thinking aboutnew mediaas speedingup of algorithmswhich previously
were executedby hand foregroundsthe useof computersfor fast algorithm execution,but
ignoresits two other essentialuses:real-timenetwork communicationand real-time
control. The abilitiesto interactwith or control remotelylocateddatain real-time,to
communicatewith other humanbeingsin real-time,and control varioustechnologies
(sensors.motors.other computers)in real time constitutethe very foundationof our
information society- phonecommunications,Internet,financial networking,industrial
control, the use of micro-controllersin numerousmodernmachinesand devices,and so
on. They also make possiblemany forms of new mediaart and culture:interactivenet art,
interactivecomputerinstallations,interactivemultimedia,computergames,real-time
music synthesis.
While non-realtime mediagenerationand manipulationvia digital computerscan
be thought of as speedingup of previouslyexistingartistictechniques,real-time
networking and control seemto constitutequalitativelynew phenomena.When we use
Photoshopto quickly combinephotographstogether,or when we composea text using a
Microsofl Word, we simply do much fasterwhat beforewe were doing eithercompletely
n.ranuallyor assistedby sometechnologies(suchas a typewriter).However, in the cases
humanspeechin real time, monitors sensors
when a computerinterpretsor synthesizes
and modifies programsbasedon their input in real-time,or controlsother devices.again
in real-time,this is somethingwhich simply couldnot be donebefore.So while it is
importantto rememberthat, on one level, a moderndigital computeris just a faster
calculator,we shouldnot ignore its other identity: that of a cyberneticcontrol device.To

put this in different way, while new mediatheory shouldpay tributesto Alan Turing, it
shouldnot forget aboutits other conceptualfather- Norbert Weiner.

7. New Media as the Encodingof ModernistAvant-Garde:New Media as Metamedia.

The approachto new mediajust discusseddoesnot foregroundany particularcultural
period as the sourceof algorithmsthat are eventuallyencodedin computersoftware.In
rny article "Avant-gardeas Software"I haveproposedthat, in fact, a particularhistorical
period is more relevantto new mediathan any other- that of the 1920s(more precisely,
tlre yearsbetween19 I 5 and 1928).During this period the avant-gardeartistsand
designershave inventeda whole new set of visual and spatiallanguagesand
communicationtechniquesthat we still usetoday.Accordingto my hypothesis,

With r-rewmedia, 1920scommunicationtechniquesacquirea new status.Thus new media

doesrepresenta new stageofthe avant-garde.The techniquesinventedby the 1920sLeft
artistsbecameembeddedin the commandsand interfacemetaphorsof computer
software.In shoft,the avant-gardevision becamematerializedin a computer.All the
strategiesdevelopedto awakenaudiencesfrom a dream-existence
of bourgeoissociety
(constructivistdesign,New Typography,avant-gardecinematographyand film editing,
photo-montage,etc.) now definethe basicroutineof a post-industrialsociety:the
interactionwith a computer.For example,the avant-gardestrategyof collagereemerged
as a "cut and paste"command,the most basicoperationone can perform on any
computerdata.In anotherexample,the dynamicwindows,pull-down menus,and HTML
tablesall allow a computeruserto simultaneouslywork with practicallyunrestricted
amountof informationdespitethe limited surfaceof the computerscreen.This strategy
can be tracedto Lissitzky'suseof movableframesin his 1926exhibitiondesignfor the
InternationalArt Exhibition in Dresden.
The encodingof the 1920savant-gardetechniquesin softwaredoesnot meanthat new
media simply qualitativelyextendthe techniqueswhich alreadyexisted.Justas is the
casewith the phenomenonof real-timecomputationthat I discussedabove,tracing new
mediaheritagein the 1920savant-garderevealsa qualitativechangeas well. The
modernistavant-gardewas concernedwith "filtering" visible reality in new ways. The
artistsare concernedwith representingthe outsideworld, with "seeing" it in as many
different ways as possible.Of coursesomeartistsalreadybegin to reactto the emerging
rnediaenvironmentby making collagesand photo-montages
consistingfrom newspaper
piecesof posters,and so on; yet thesepracticesof
clipping,existingphotographs,

manipulatingexisting media were not yet central.But a numberof decadeslater they

have to the foregroundof culturalproduction.To put this differently,after a centuryand
a half of media culture,alreadyexistingmediarecords(or "media assets,"to usethe
Hollywood term) becomethe new raw materialfor software-based
cultural production
and artistic practice.Many decadesof analogmediaproductionresultedin a hugemedia
archiveand it is the contentsof this archive* televisionprograms,films, audio
recordings.etc - which becamethe raw datato be processed,re-articulated,mined and
re-packagedthrough digital software- ratherthan raw reality. In my article I formulate
this as follows:

New Media indeedrepresentsthe new avant-garde,and its innovationsare at leastas

radical as the formal innovationsof the 1920s.But if we are to look for theseinnovations
in the realm of forms, this traditionalareaof culturalevolution,we will not find them
there.For the new avant-gardeis radically different from the old:
1. The old mediaavant-garde
of the 1920scameup with new forms,new ways to
representreality and new ways to seethe world. The new media avant-gardeis aboutnew
ways of accessingand manipulatinginformation.Its techniquesare hypermedia,
databases,
searchengines,datamining, imageprocessing,visualization,and simulation.
2. The new avant-gardeis no longerconcernedwith seeingor representingthe
world in new ways but ratherwith accessingand using in new ways previously
accumulatedmedia.In this respectnew mediais post-mediaor meta-media,as it usesold
media as its primary material.
My conceptof "meta-media"is relatedto a more familiar notion of "post-modernism"the recognitionthat by the 1980sthe culturebecamemore concernedwith reworking
alreadyexisting content,idioms and style ratherthan creatinggenially new ones.What I
would like to stress(and what I think the original theoristsof post-modernismin the
1980shave not stressedenough)is the key role playedby the materialfactorsin the shift
towardspost-modernistaesthetics:the accumulationof hugemediaassetsand the arrival
of new electronicand digital tools which madeit very easyto accessand re-work these
assets.This is anotherexampleof quantitychanginginto quality in media history: the
gradualaccumulationof mediarecordsand the gradualautomationof media management
and manipulationtechniqueseventuallyrecodedmodernistaestheticsinto a very different
post-modernaestheti
cs.

8. New Media as ParallelArticulation of Similar Ideasin PostWWII Art and Mqdern

Cornputin{-I.
Along with the 1920s,we can think of other culturalperiodsthat generatedideasand
sensibilitiesparticularlyrelevantto new media.In the 1980sa numberof writerslooked
at the connectionsbetweenBaroqueand post-modernsensibilities;given the closelinks
betweenpost-modernism
andnew mediaI just briefly discussed,
it would be logicalif the
parallelsbetweenBaroqueand new mediacan also be established.It can be also argued
that in many ways new mediareturnsus to a pre-modernistcultural logic of the
eighteenthcentury:considerfor instance,the parallelbetweeneighteenthcentury
comtnunitiesof readerswho were also all writers and participantsin Internetnewsgroups
and mailing lists who are also both readersand writers.
In the twentiethcentury,alongwith the 1920s,which for me representthe cultural
peak of this century(becauseduring this period more radically new aesthetictechniques
were prototypedthan in any otherperiod of similar duration),the secondculturall peak1960s- alsoseemsto containmanyof new mediagenes.A numberof writerssuchas
SokeDinkla have arguedthat interactivecomputerart (1980s-) fuither developsideas
alreadycontainedin the new art of the 1960s(happenings,performances,installation):
activeparticipationof the audience,an artwork as a temporalprocessratherthan as a
fixed object.an aftwork as an opensystem.This connectionmakeseven more sense
when we rememberthat someof the most influential figuresin new media art (Jeffrey
Shaw,Roy Ascott) startedtheir art careersin the 1960sand only later moved to
computingand networkingtechnologies.For instance,in the end of the 1960sJeffrey
Shawwas working on inflatablestructuresfor film projectionsand performanceswhich
were big enoughto containa small audienceinside- somethingwhich he later came
back to in many of his VR installations,and evenmore directly in EVE project.
Thereis anotheraestheticprojectof the 1960sthat alsocanbe linkedto new
media not only conceptuallybut also historically,sincethe arlistswho pursuedthis
project with computers(suchas Manfred Mohr) knew of minimalist artistswho during
the samedecadepursuedthe sameproject "manually" (most notably, Sol LeWitt). This
projectcanbe called"combinatorics."It involvescreatingimagesand/orobjectsby
systematicallyvarying a singleparameteror by systematicallycreatingall possible

combinationsof a small numberof elements."Combinatorics"in computeraft and

minimalist arl of the 1960sled to the creationof remarkablysimilar imagesand spatial
structures;it illustrateswell that the algorithms,this essentialpart of new media, do not
dependon technologybut can be executedby humans.