5/22/12

 give a narrative account of your hunting + gathering travels today. Where you started, what you gathered, what you learned, what you would like to learn more about, etc.



     I began my day by taking advantage of media without really considering all of what I had access to. In my search for composition articles, I didn't realize I was enjoying the use of "numerical representation" as I google searched the vast stores of data and numerical algorithms available in the internet. I gave no thought to artistic designs and layouts in the websites I found, or the pixels in the images. In my use of stumble upon and delicious, it didn't even occur to me to consider the complex series of codes and algorithms needed to bring sites like that to life. However after reading Manovich's history of new media, and his principles of new media, I gained a greater understanding and appreciation for the significance of modern technology.  
     One of the things that struck me about Manovich's writing was the long history of new media. For one, I never imagined that computer technology was as old as it was. Additionally, I never considered the ways that computational devices and media images evolved individually, before intertwining, their histories merging and interacting. Today, digital mathematics and images are one and the same. all of our new media and much of our art and design combines both without a second thought. I thought it was fascinating the way both were created without a thought of combining them, and as technology and civilization advanced and grew they naturally merged and influenced each other. 
     Another interesting idea is Manovich's concept of modularity. It can easily be applied to almost any medium of art. For example in a painting or photograph. Each color, each idea, each brushstroke or image exists individually as its own separate entity.But combined with other entities it creates something that is so much more. Or consider music. Each note in a symphony or choral piece exists on its own, independent of what's around it. Groups of notes together make up melodic lines, and combined, these lines create complex harmonies, rhythms and counter-rhythms, and interplaying motives and ideas. Together, much like a digital image made up of pixels,they create music so complex and beautiful one is often unaware of the notes its made of.