24 | 2002

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Metonymical Mov(i)es: Lev Manovich's "The Language of New Media"
Arns, Inke (2002-07-27) , S. 1-8
Lev Manovich's "The Language of New Media" (see review by Idensen) is a very well written book (which can also be used as a database) which guides the reader through its rich contents by always providing short summaries of the chapter s/he just read or s/he is about to read. The author illustrates his arguments very well by always giving a broad range of examples from his own practical working with these new media technologies. However, one can experience new media without ever being so massively confronted with visuals or cinematic code as Manovich suggests writing: "the visual culture of a computer age is cinematographic in its appearance". If you talk about computer games, or about VR discourses developed over the last ten to twenty years, yes, it is cinematographic plus some other elements. Hollywood's and Silicon Valley's language of new media is indeed massively cinematographic. But, for example, if you talk about net culture, media art, or practices like chatting or SMS culture, then you just cannot claim that we have to deal with a visual culture which is predominantly cinematographic.