COM257: Media History and Theory

     This week's reading, "Mobile Telephone History," by Farley, discusses how the first version of the mobile telephone was invented in 1946, after World War II, and since that time, how they have become such a crucial part of our lives.  Although the first commercial mobile telephones were invented in 1946, their cost and accessibility did not make them popular until 1995, and they have since come a long way.

     "On June 17, 1946 in Saint Louis, Missouri, AT&T and one of its regional telephone companies, Southwestern Bell, began operating MTS, or Mobile Telephone Service" (Farley, pp. 22-23).  These mobile telephones were all car-based radio telephones that were very limited in their accessories and functions.

     In 1947, Bell Laboratories' W. R. Young stated that Bell teams "had faith that the means for administering and connecting to many small cells would evolve by the time they were needed" (Farley, p. 23).  However, more mobile telephones were and have always been needed, and they were not only being produced very slowly, but they were also very unattainable to the public.

     As the years passed, mobile telephones slowly became more functioning, such as with the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958, Improved Mobile Telephone Service or IMTS in 1964 (which replaced the badly aging Mobile Telephone System), the formation of Nokia in 1967, the first commercial cellular radio system in 1969, when the "FCC approved an additional 115 megahertz of spectrum for future mobile telephone use" (Farley, p. 26) on May 1, 1974, the beginning of analog cellular systems in May 1978, and so forth until 1995, when there was the first major breakthrough and the start of mobile telephones as we know them today.

     I remember when I was six years old, in 1994, and our house was for sale.  We had a couple coming to see our house that day, and I was shocked that at the time when they were supposed to be there to view our home, we received a call from their real estate agent, saying they were outside.  I was so confused and could not fathom how this was possible.  This was the very first memory I have of mobile telephones, and when I received my first cellphone in seventh grade, many of my friends still did not own them.  I thought it was really cool how I could call anyone I wanted at anytime.  Mobile telephones have come such a long way even since the time I was in seventh grade, but especially since 1949.  Our world would truly be different without the invention of cellular mobile telephones.

     This week's reading, "Introduction," begins with the author's discussion of the term "Half-Real" in regards to video games, which can be real and not real at the same time.  He explains, "video games are real in that they consist of real rules with which players actually interact, and in that winning or losing a game is a real event. However, when winning a game by slaving a dragon, the dragon is not a real dragon but a fictional one" (Juul, p. 1).

     After defining this important term, Juul moves on to various video games and the interactions in them that make them adhere to the rule of Half-Real, meaning that they follow a set of both real and non-real rules.  One example of such a video game is the Legend of Zelda.  He attempts to find his abducted sister throughout the game and there is an arrow in the screen, reminding us that we must follow a set of rules to reach the final destination of the game.

     In comparison to new, interactive games such as Zelda, Juul discusses the first ever video game, Spacewar!, which was created in 1961 (and we actually talked about this game near the beginning of the semester).  Spacewar! involved much less interaction and options than did Zelda, but the user was still, of course, required to follow a set of instructions to advance to the next level.

     In summation, Juul talks about the importance of rules in games, and how a game would be nothing without its rules.  "The rules of a game provide the player with challenges that the player cannot trivially overcome. It is a basic paradox of games that while the rules themselves are generally definite, unambiguous, and easy to use, the enjoyment of a game depends on these easy-to-use rules presenting challenges that cannot be easily overcome" (Juul, p. 5).

     I used to play video games when I was much younger, beginning with the Super Nintendo my brother and I received for Christmas one year.  Looking back, the games were very simple and had few options, but they were still half-real because we were forced to follow rules to play the games, but the elements of the games also consisted of elements we encounter in daily life.  I can see how many people become obsessed with video games.  They are able to create a life of virtual reality in which it is much easier for them to choose their paths in "life," but at the same time, do not have complete control.

     This week's reading, "What is Web 2.0:  Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software," begins with Tim O'Reilly explaining what the web is and discussing its implications for the future of media technology.  When the internet as we know it today suddenly boomed in the fall of 2001, many people at first thought it was "all talk."  They soon found out that the internet was not just some new media fad, and it was here to stay.

     O'Reilly wants his readers to understand Web 2.0, and the major differences between it and Web 1.0.  He includes lists of newer technology used in Web 2.0 as compared to Web 1.0, interviews and studies that test the principles of the Web, and so forth.  What O'Reilly found was that "Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core" (O'Reilly, p. 18).  In October 2004, at the first convention held to discuss the new principles and applications of Web 2.0, O'Reilly and other experts found that Web 2.0 integrated a much more practical means of applying itself.

     O'Reilly and his fellow experts at the convention concluded that Web 2.0 was a springboard for future media web technology (instead of simply the first web application like Web 1.0), which is shown in comparisons such as the outdated Netscape (Web 1.0) versus the advanced Google system (Web 2.0), Ofoto (Web 1.0) versus Flickr (Web 2.0), personal websites, such as expage.com, a personal favorite of my friends and I in middle school (Web 1.0) versus personal blogging sites (Web 2.0), and so much more.

     In the end, there were many reasons why Web 1.0 and Netscape failed.  "Google, by contrast [to Netscape], began its life as a native web application, never sold or packaged, but delivered as a service, with customers paying, directly or indirectly, for the use of that service. None of the trappings of the old software industry are present...At bottom, Google requires a competency that Netscape never needed: database management. Google isn't just a collection of software tools, it's a specialized database. Without the data, the tools are useless; without the software, the data is unmanageable" (O'Reilly, p. 20).

     I remember the first time I used the internet, which was then Web 1.0.  Although it seemed exciting and technologically astounding, everyone soon realized it could be greatly improved.  My friends and I used to make personal websites in middle school that included an about me section, a message board, a quiz to take, a different background color or pattern, and so forth.  The first time I saw a picture of my friend uploaded onto her page, I was speechless.  Yet, today, it would be impossible for me to do many of the things I need to do without being able to upload pictures.  It may seem like a common thing nowadays, but it was once not the case, and not just the internet, but Web 2.0 has improved every aspect of our lives.

      In this week's reading, "Popularizing the Internet" in the book Inventing the Internet, Janet Abbate discusses how the internet emerged as an important medium of communications in the 1990s.  To some people, the sensation of the internet seemed to expand overnight, but such was not the case.  In addition to the two decades of work the internet took to be completed, it also underwent many transformations "over the course of the 1980s and the early 1990s to
turn the Internet into a popular form of communication" (Abbate, p. 181).

     The internet also was in danger of losing all control of itself.  When it lost its central guiding vision from the ARPA and began to get blindly caught up in the new technologies, it began to fail.  So, this reading "describe[s] how the Internet was transformed from a research tool into a popular medium" (Abbate, p. 182).  This began with increasing popular participation, growth through local-area networks (such as libraries, universities, and so forth), and the organization of chaos.

     "Although the
Internet could afford to grow in a decentralized and spontaneous way,
there were still certain functions for which central coordination
seemed to be needed to prevent chaos. One of the most important of
these functions was providing a uniform and comprehensive system of
host names and addresses that would allow each computer to be uniquely
identified" (Abbate, pp. 188-189).  Abbate explains that in order for the internet to become a popular, widespread, and uniform tool for a variety of purposes, "each host
had to be able to obtain the addresses of all the others; there also
had to be some way to make sure that no names or addresses were
duplicated. This called for some type of system-wide coordination" (Abbate, p. 189).

     In summation, the author explains that through processes such as the inauguration of the NSFNET project which created created regional networks, the end of the ARPANET which allowed for the creation of a better communication system of networking, and the ending of the internet being controlled by the government.  At this time, the internet was "still intended only
for nonprofit research and education. The final step toward opening the
network to all users and activities would be privatization" (Abbate, p. 195).

     "NSF managers saw
privatization as the solution to their worries about users and
contractors. If they could shift the operation of the Internet from the
NSF to the commercial sector and end direct government subsidies of
its infrastructure, the issue of acceptable use would disappear. And
with the private sector supplying Internet services, network companies
could compete for customers in the marketplace, rather than competing
for NSF contracts" (Abbate, pp. 196-197).  Stephen Wolff, the manager of NSF, started to discuss the idea of privatizing the internet in 1990, and this was the beginning of the final step in popularizing the internet.

     After the convergence with other networks and the new direction of the management, the internet began to be popular in households.  I remember the first time I used the internet. I was in late elementary or early middle school, and the internet was very slow and I couldn't do much with it.  Still, I thought it was amazing I could be connected in such a miraculous way simply through my computer. This was the first time I had even ever heard of the internet, but from that time on, I have used it almost every day or my life whether it be for personal or academic interests.

     
This week's reading, "Nonlinearity and Literary Theory," begins on page 766 with "A Typology of Nonlinear Textuality."  The author begins by explaining that the use of the term nonlinearity in this article has nothing to do with modern physical sciences, but with mathematics.  The author says that he makes this point because he wants to make it clear that his use of the term is different than that of author Katherine Hayles', who connects nonlinearity with modern sciences.

     "For a formal definition of our concept...this is the theory of 'those properties of geometric figures that remain unchanged even when under distortion, so long as no surfaces are torn,' [and] the textonomical version of topology may be described as 'the study of the ways in which the various sections of a text are connected, disregarding the physical properties of the channel (paper, stone, electromagnetic, and so on), by means of which the text is transmitted'" (Aarseth, p. 766).

     So, these nonlinear texts must be described in topological, or mathematical, terms.  If this is done correctly, they will consist of "a set of smaller units and the connections between them. Further, the function of these units must be relevant to our notion of nonlinearity...It is not difficult to partition any text into graphemes (letters), lexemes (words), or syntagms (phrases or sentences), but none of these elements indicates nonlinearity by its presence" (Aarseth, p. 767).  Later on in the reading, examples are shown of the importance of the exact position of a letter or syntagms "strung together can make a text nonlinear.  Therefore, the unit for which we are looking is clearly not defined by linguistic form" (Aarseth, p. 767).

      The author discusses more of nonlinearity as the reading continues, but notes the importance of the list of variates, which change the elements of nonlinearity.  These include topology, dynamics, determinability, and maneuverability, and they all play a significant role on literary theory and nonlinearity.  Aarseth also discusses all about hypertext, which he says is actually much easier than we think it is, and cybertextuality, which overlaps with topography and real-world simulation.

     In the second half of this week's reading, "A Social History of the Media," the authors discuss the age of television and the impacts this new media technology had on World War II across the globe.  But, when the World War II ended, "there was still little sense of excitement about television in radio and film circles, and below the surface there may have been apprehension" (Briggs & Burke, p. 189).  The reason for this was the lack of news or programs to offer.  Because the war had ended, there was no more news about the war, no more war-related programs, and since so much money had been going to World War II, there were less programs than there should have been at the time. 

     However, television broadcasting and the popularity of television increased from 178,000 owned television sets in 1947 to 15 million sets in 1952.  Producers began to innovate, and "Hollywood" became a household word.  In 1952, President Eisenhower wrote:  "'If a citizen has to be bored to death, it is cheaper and more comfortable to sit at home and look at television than it is to go outside and pay a dollar for a ticket'" (Briggs & Burke, p. 189).  Also, the movie star celebrities became so idolized that it was impossible for most people to not watch television to watch these entertainers.

     There were many differences between Britain's broadcasting stations (mostly BBC) and the United States' (mostly NBC and CBS), and these differences became more apparent as the years passed.  Both BBC and NBC/CBS were widely supported and remained strong networks, but "After [America's] domestic television market seemed to have reached saturation point in the mid-1950s, powerful American television interests had begun to look abroad...In the mid-1950s CBS already had affiliates in Havana, Mexico City, Puerto Rico and twenty Canadian cities, and it was outside Europe that the American style of commercial television, intent on offering the entertainment it believed viewers wanted and on avoiding all causes of political offence, spread most easily" (Briggs & Burke, p. 194).

     Today, television is popular in every area of the world that can afford the entertainment.  The United States started its popularity boom, with Britian following in their steps, and from that point on, television rapidly improved and increased in popularity.  I am so glad television eventually picked up following World War II; I have thought about doing television production work when I am out of college, but the demand for this job would be extremely low if television broadcasting had never become popular following the war.

     In this week's reading, the first part of "A Social History of the Media," Briggs and Burke begin by discussing the importance of twentieth century information:  information, education, and entertainment.  All three of these have existed since ancient times, but have been called other things.  For example, "'Information' had usually been described in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as 'intelligence', 'education' as 'instruction', and 'entertainment' as 'recreation', 'pastime' or 'amusement'" (Briggs & Burke, p. 151).

     Heading into television and the age of broadcasting, the authors talk about the effects that radio and television broadcasting had on society while it was new media, and especially the impact they had on the war.  In some parts of the world, the broadcasting stations controlled their listeners' thoughts, and in other parts of the world, such as in the Soviet Union, "the press was rigorously controlled" (Briggs & Burke, p. 174) and included only the ideas of party activists.

     Also, as is the case with many countries led by dictators, leaders held rallies or speeches and condemned those who went against their beliefs.  Freedom of speech was not tolerated by those opposed to the leaders, and in Figure 21 of "A Social History of the Media," there is a picture of Adolf Hitler on a podium, speaking to a crowd.  The caption explains, "In the stadium.  Adolf Hitler, assisted by his Minister of Propaganda, Josef Goebbels, used the microphone as a megaphone.  Here, alone, separated from his huge audience, he addresses a rally" (Briggs & Burke, p. 175).  Then, in Figure 22 of the text, there is a picture of President Roosevelt sitting in front of a fireplace in his rocking chair.  The caption for this picture reads, "At the fireside.  Franklin D. Roosevelt uses radio to chat to his fellow citizens.  He put his trust in what he considered democratic communication.  Note his audience" (Briggs & Burke, p. 176).

     In the remainder of the text, Briggs and Burke outline the rest of the history and impacts of broadcasting.  The Federal Radio Commission was established in 1927 (at first, temporarily) to deal with broadcasting issues.  It became a permanent institution after people realized how much "American radio had diverged quite significantly from Britain's...it [also] had a very different attitude to political (including election) broadcasting" (Briggs & Burke, p. 178).  In the United States, broadcasting was integrated into the world of business and politics from the very beginning.

     No matter what the specific purposes of a broadcasting station are, its most important goal is to reach as many people as possible.  I was in a media writing class last semeter, and broadcasting is something we focused on for many weeks.  My teacher told us that despite conflicting ideas of viewers or listeners of a television or radio broadcasting station, it is crucial to that station that as many people as possible tune in, whether or not those people disagree with the beliefs of that station.  The authors sum this up by explaining, "Whatever the country, whatever the regime, whatever the agency, whatever the period, the raison d'etre of all broadcasting was the offer of programmes to a large unseen audience" (Briggs & Burke, p. 181).

     In this week's reading, "Technology and Ideology:  The Case of the Telegraph," Carey begins by discussing the impact of the three major improvements in transportation and communication in America: the railroad, Cunard Steamers, and telegraph.  The author then explains that, out of these three kinds of "new media," the telegraph has always been the one least studied. And "[a]lthough the telegraph did not provide the site for the first of the titanic nineteenth-century patent struggles...it led to one of the most significant of them in the rewriting of American law, particularly in the great 'telegraph war' between Jay Gould and the Vanderbilt interests for control of the Edison patents for the quadraplex telegraph system" (Carey, p. 202).

     In addition to engineering the creation of patents, the telegraph was the first product of the electrical industry, and moreover, laid the foundation for new products in the science and engineering industry.  The telegraph also brought about new changes in communication, thus significantly altering language, as well as drastic changes in knowledge and the very idea of existence.

     Out of all these changes the telegraph brought about, "The most important fact about the telegraph is at once the most obvious and innocent:  It permitted for the first time the effective separation of communication from transportation.  This fact was immediately recognized, but its significance has been rarely investigated" (Carey, p. 203). The telegraph allowed communication to be separated from physical transportation, and like in 1911 film The Lonedale Operator, "the early use of the telegraph in railroad
signaling is an example: telegraph messages could control the physical
switching of rolling stock, thereby multiplying the purposes and effectiveness
of communication" (Carey, p. 203).

     When looking back on the early years of the telegraph, it may have been hard for people to realize the impact that the telegraph was having on their society and future societies.  The only thing that most people knew was that physical mobility was no longer necessary for communication, which saved many lives in The Lonedale Operator, which we will be viewing this week in class.  But the telegraph did more than this, and it has allowed us to create other forms of new media that improve every kind of technology, ranging from transportation and communication to scientific and engineering-based technologies.

     This article, "Printing and the Rupture of Classification," by Michael Hobart and Zachary Schiffman, begins by talking about Michel de Montaigne and the impact he had on printed works and the abundance of knowledge they possess. Montaigne suffered the loss of many people close to him, including his best friend Etienne de La Boêtie who bequeathed many of his scholarly books to Montaigne.  This prompted Montaigne to model his life after "Aristotle's successors, the Stoic and Epicurean moral philosophers of Greek and Roman antiquity, [who] had advocated cleansing the mind of worldly concerns and ascending the hierarchy of being, to live in harmony with the principle of Reason that pervaded the cosmos and underlay the order of nature" (Hobart & Schiffman, pp. 87-88).

     As the article continues, the authors discuss how after the printing press was invented in the mid-fifteenth century, the amount of printed works increased significantly.  They explain, "This avalanche of books and ideas engendered not intellectual advancement but confusion, undercutting the traditional, classificatory means of information management" (Hobart & Schiffman, p. 89).  The article also discusses how "printing gave individuals access to a previously unimaginable number of books, overloading them with diverse and contradictory information" (Hobart & Schiffman, p. 89).  Thus, with the invention of the printing press came the ability to study new ideas, theories, languages, and much more that would have otherwise been impossible to learn about.

     As the amount of printed works increased, many people began to feel overwhelmed by all the new information.  This led to a slight decrease in the popularity of printed works, but it was soon overcome with the invention of cursive script, which made the books easier to read.  The books were also less bulky, so they were easier to transport and hold and much less expensive.  Glosses were also invented, which "incorporated the opinions of all the major commentators. The passage being explicated was written in red or marked by some other means, and the different sources of the commentary flowing around it were identified by symbols, figures, or letters. For example, different Biblical commentaries (say, those of Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome) could be identified and indexed in the margin of the page by different patterns of colored dots" (Hobart & Schiffman, p. 92).

     In addition to the invention of cursive script and gloss, "the summa, or 'summary,' which—unlike the gloss—aimed at cutting through the diversity of interpretations to establish a core of truth" (Hobart & Schiffman, p. 93) was also invented to improve printed works.  The invention of all these things and many more demonstrates how media is changing daily.  Just like the newest iPod or LCD television or other form of "new media," printed works have always, and continue to, impove daily.  Even in recent months, there have been interactive books created, online versions of printed media, and much more.  The creation of new media will continue to the end of time, and it began many years before the invention of the printing press and the scholarly curiousities of Michel de Montaigne.

     "The Condition of Virtuality," by N. Katherine Hayles, discusses virtuality and its materiality.  The author says that "Virtuality is the cultural perception that material objects are interpenetrated by information patterns" (Hayles, p. 69).  She talks about what it means to have something of virtuality, and how it can be shown in artistic ways.  One example Hayles gives of this is at a recent SIGGRAPH art show, where, for this example, "From the twenty-foot ceilings of the Art Show exhibit dangled thin red cords, like monstrous strings of spaghetti left behind by naughty giants who got in a food fight" (Hayles, p. 69).  These strands of spaghetti were connected by transducers to data lines, which sensored and measured movement within the room.  So, when Hayles is speaking of virtuality, she does not mean that is it merely "a psychological phenomenon. It is also a mind-set that finds instantiation in an array of powerful technologies" (Hayles, p. 69).

     Hayles goes on to discuss the examples and experiments that reinforce the concept of virtuality as something more than just a psychological phenomenon.  She says that the most notable example of this is Hans Moravec's Mind Children, where the author argues that "human beings are essentially informational patterns rather than bodily presences" (Hayles, p. 72).  Moravec compares us to computers, and incorporates the process of a brain surgeon performing on us, eventually making us into a new being, where we learn to adapt.  However, Hayles argues, "I will not bother to lay out all the reasons why this vision, in addition to being wildly implausible, is wrongheaded and dangerous" (Hayles, p. 73).  It is true that this condition of virtuality can be accepted, but under only certain circumstances when all that goes into the process of virtuality is understood.

     I can relate the condition of virtuality to many things I do in my life.  If I have something and then use it, I can not then it back to use it again.  Hayles explains, "Material objects are possessions. I cannot eat
my cake and also give it away" (Hayles, p. 78).  I also can share something that is virtual with another being, whether it is material or not, and we will then both possess that thing.  Hayles also notes the importance of The Virtual Book and the key role it plays in defining the condition of virtuality in any society.  Lastly, Hayles makes the crucial point that "My focus here is on how this interactivity is rendered through visual
conventions" (Hayles, p. 80).

     This article, "The poetics of augmented space," by Lev Manovich, discusses how people experience various spatial forms when they are in situations where wireless multimedia are affluent.  The author "calls such spaces 'augmented space': the physical space overlaid with dynamically changing information, multimedia in form and localized for each user" (Manovich, p. 2).  In this article, Manovich focuses on the various experiences of people in augmented space as opposed to the specific electronic, computer, graphical, and forms of network technologies through which the augmentation is thus achieved

      Manovich begins by explaining the difference between the general dynamic of spatial forms and the information processes that go into their workings.  He also tells that "Although historically built environments were almost always covered with ornament, texts (for instance, shop signs), and images (fresco paintings, icons, sculptures, etc. – think of churches in most cultures), the phenomenon of the dynamic multimedia information in these environments is new" (Manovich, p. 3).

     The phenomenon of virtual spaces began in the 1990s, with the creation and movement of Virtual Reality (VR).  Then during the second part of the 1990s, after the boom of Virtual Reality, came "yet another virtual phenomenon – dot coms – [which] rose to prominence, only to crash in the real-world laws of economics" (Manovich, p. 3).

     From this, only more and more has been created, from context-aware computing to sensor networks to HDTV, PDAs, GPA systems, and so forth.  Along with these innovations, however, have come the riddance of "old" technologies such as video surveillance systems and CD-ROMs, and in the end, have resulted in many changes for our ever-changing world.  "Going beyond the 'surface as electronic screen paradigm,' architects now have the opportunity to think of the material architecture that most usually preoccupies them and the new immaterial architecture of information flows within the physical structure as a whole...architects along with artists can take the next logical step to consider the 'invisible' space of electronic data flows as substance rather than just as void – something that needs a structure, a politics, and a poetics" (Manovich, p. 20).

     Well...I just wrote my entire blog post after reading the whole text sideways and also saved my draft a few times, but for some reason it never saved and I don't have another hour to waste writing exactly what I wrote before so this will be much shorter than what I originally wrote.

     Aharon Kellerman's text "Technologies" begins by explaining about the mobilities of new technology, and their application in our world.  Although "extended human spatial mobilities" (Kellerman, p. 73) have been in existence for over a century, forms of these technologies are still used daily, and they continue to be called enablers.  The two prominent forms of these technologies are transportation, which include media such as electricity, automobiles, and trains, and communications, which include media such as writing, printing, the Internet, and telephone/fax.

     As Kellerman gets more into the specifics of these mobility technologies, he explains their development, structure, and mobility, and the significance these technologies had on their world at the time.  Standardization procedures, Kellerman explains, "have permitted flexible self-operations by users, and hence facilitated their mass-adoption.  Standardization has further contributed to efficient and fast movements of information, people and merchandise, and it has also played a dominant role in shaping the structures of mobility systems" (Kellerman, p. 74).

     Fortunately for the development of media of mobility technologies, the standardization of communications and transportation technologies and their popularity/use have evolved alongside one another.  This has allowed all areas of the technologies to build upon and improve each other, thus paving the way for new technologies to be invented or improved constantly.  The relationship between the form of technology and the popularity of the technology has allowed a greater increase in production of new technologies.

      In summation, Kellerman describes the spheres and aspects of walking, automobility, the telephone, and wirelessness, and the positive and negative impacts they have on individuals, society, and space.  "Wirelessness for mobile telephones and wireless laptops is a possible equivalent term to the previously discussed automobility, telephony and Internetness, relating to values, practices, norms and patterns within the three spheres of individuals, society, and space, assuming the wide adoption of wireless communications devices by households" (Kellerman, p. 101).

     This week's reading assignment was "The Forms:  The Database," by Manovich.  In this reading, the author describes the various types of databases, describes their importance in-depth, and explains to his audience the basic purpose of a database, and how the data is stored.  "The data stored in a database is organized for fast search and retrieval by a computer and therefore it is anything but a simple collection of items" (Manovich, p. 194).  Manovich also explains how the different types of databases have various, distinct purposes, and the effect they have on other types of media.

     After Manovich introduced the different types of databases and their purposes, he goes into specific examples of databases in new media.  He says that the most obvious example of a database in new media is the online encyclopedia, which are collections of "recipes, quotations, photographs, and so on" (Manovich, p. 195), in addition to biographies, definitions, formulas, and more.  And, of course, online encyclopedias are based through the world wide web, so it is actually that which is the database.  Manovich explains the importance of the web by adding, "The open nature of the Web as medium (Web pages are computer files which can always be edited) means that the Web sites never have to be complete; and they rarely are.  The sites always grow.  New links are being added to what is already there.  It is as easy to add new elements to the end of list as it is to insert them anywhere in it.  All this further contributes to the anti-narrative logic of the Web.  If new elements are being added over time, the result is a collection, not a story" (Manovich, p. 196).

     In summation, Manovich relates literary and cinematic narratives to the elements on a syntagmatic dimension, which "are related in praesentia, while the elements on a paradigmatic dimension are related in absentia" (Manovich, p. 203).  By this, he means that the databases used by these various types of media are related, but in different, unique ways.  Databases are the core of the design process for web pages, and although the key to a functioning type of media is its database, it can be one of many designs.

     "The Interface" by Lev Manovich begins with the introduction of a man named Ridley Scott and the impact he had on the future of contemporary culture.  Scott, who directed the Blade Runner (1982), was hired in 1984 to create a commercial for Apple's new Macintosh computer.  The aesthetics in Blade Runner have been mimicked throughout the years, paving the way for other forms of graphic styling.  More importantly, though, "Graphical User Interface (GUI), popularized by Macintosh, remained true to the modernist values of clarity and functionality.  The user's screen was ruled by strait lines and rectangular windows which contained smaller rectangles of individual files arranged in a grid" (Manovich, p. 75).  There were many similiarities between the Blade Runner and GUI, and the popularization of GUI became the foundation for technology in the future.

     After examining the background of the interface and the process that influenced its beginning, Manovich describes the language of cultural interfaces and its purpose.  Human-computer interface (HCI) "describes the ways in which the user interacts with a computer.  HCI includes physical input and output devices such a
monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse. It also consists of metaphors used to conceptualize the organization of computer data" (Manovich, p. 80).  For example, the 1984 Apple Macintosh introduced a metaphorical interface of a desktop with files and folders, obviously comparing the computer's desktop to an actual desktop with files and folders and such.  Specific examples of the HCI actions provided on modern-day computers are copy, rename, and delete
file; the start and stop a computer
program; minimize, maximize, restore, and close window, and so forth.  One of the most well-known examples of a prototypical cultural interface of the 1990s is the CD-ROM Myst, which opens with music and credits like a movie, then transforms into an open book, waiting for its next move from the click of a mouse.  Familiar Macintosh interface reminds the user that "along with being a new movie/book hybrid, Myst is also a computer application: you can adjust sound volume and graphics quality by selecting from a usual Macintosh-style menu in the upper top part of the screen" (Manovich, p. 81).  Finally, the user is taken inside the game, where the HCI is incredibly unlimited, especially for that time in the language of interface.

     Manovich goes on to explain about the comparison of the cinema and modern-day HCI, the representation versus control of the HCI, the connection between the computer screen and its user, and so on.  As media technology continues to improve, so does the world of computer encoding, which is a form of interface.  "The fact that computer games and virtual worlds continue to encode, step by step, the grammar of a kino-eye in software and in hardware is not an accident.  This encoding is consistent with the overall trajectory driving the computerization of culture since the 1940's, that being the automation of all cultural operations.  This automation gradually moves from basic to more complex operations: from image processing and spell checking to software-generated characters, 3D worlds, and Web Sites" (Manovich, p. 91).

     Even as a little girl, I can remember playing on my brother's Super Nintendo and the connection between the computer (or gaming system) and myself, and the difference between the logic of the simulation and the representation of the interface.  In "The Interface," Manovich is trying to describe just this.  He says, "To further analyze the different logic of the simulation and the representation traditions we may compare their typical representatives: frescoes and mosaics, on the one hand, and the Renaissance painting.  The former create an illusionary space that starts behind the surface of an image.  Importantly, the frescoes, mosaics, and also wall paintings are inseparable from the architecture. In other words, they can’t not be moved anywhere. In contrast, a modern painting, which first makes its appearance during the Renaissance, is essentially mobile.  Separate from a wall, it can be transported anywhere" (Manovich, p. 112).

     The article "What is New Media?" by Manovich discusses the new types of media that surround us in our culture.  However, since there is always new types of media being invented or updated, it is hard to define what is considered "new."  The only way this can be done is if we have a definition.  Manovich explains, "Accordingly, texts distributed on a computer (Websites and electronic books) are considered to be new media, whereas texts distributed on paper are not" (page 19).  The article also explains how the rise of new media technology for one specific task parallels the invention of new machines used for another specific task.  Media technology is changing and improving daily, and it is all happening together.  The article goes into in-depth desciprions of the beginning of media technology, how it has progressed over time (at times, slowly, and at times, rapidly), and how these changes have affected our culture and the media technology that exists and continues to change today.

     In my Communications 250 class last spring, we often talked about media technology and how it is always changing.  Each day, people work to make improvements to existing technology.  For example, there continue to be new versions of televisions, iPods, computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and so on, released very often.  We learned that this cycle will continue as long as media technology exists, and this is why there can never really be "new" media.