Here is an interesting article on Lev Manovich’s views on the mechanisms which move the information society. His book, The Language of New Media is the first systematic essay on the New Technologies of Communication. He sees the language of New Media as the vision of the world in contemporary society.
Lev Manovich recently Guest Lectured at the University of Sydney on Art and Culture in the Digital Age on April 4th and on his Research in Humanities and Social Sciences on April 15th.
Here is an Excerpt from the Editorial Review at Amazon.
In this book Lev Manovich offers the first systematic and rigorous theory of new media. He places new media within the histories of visual and media cultures of the last few centuries. He discusses new media’s reliance on conventions of old media, such as the rectangular frame and mobile camera, and shows how new media works create the illusion of reality, address the viewer, and represent space. He also analyzes categories and forms unique to new media, such as interface and database.
Manovich uses concepts from film theory, art history, literary theory, and computer science and also develops new theoretical constructs, such as cultural interface, spatial montage, and cinegratography. The theory and history of cinema play a particularly important role in the book. Among other topics, Manovich discusses parallels between the histories of cinema and of new media, digital cinema, screen and montage in cinema and in new media, and historical ties between avant-garde film and new media.
Experpt: Editorial Review, Amazon. (Cited: 13 April, 2003) [Online] Available: http://www.amazon.com