Blog 5

Manovich describes this shift between computers being culturally invisible to becoming a “new engine” of culture by discussing his early experiences with computers and their rapid invention of new technologies and programs. He talks about the time period when PCs became popular, the first computer animation companies came into existence, programs such as Illustrator and Photoshop were created and much more. I thought it was interesting that he included Moore’s Law in this segment. I learned about this law in a business class that I am taking and it states that, “the number of transistors per square inch on an integrated chip doubles every 18 months.” Or in other words, the capabilities of a computer doubles every 18 months. While this has been found to be true, and Manovich gives it credit, he also argues that the shift of computers becoming the new engine of culture is because of, “the release of software aimed at non-technical users,” and not just these new capabilities. Computers now became easy to use for anyone.

The inventors of computational media are Sutherland, Engelbart, Nelson, Kay, and others who worked with them. However, they didn’t come up with this out of nothing, but built on existing computational influences. Bolter and Grusin used the term “remediation” to describe such continuity between past and present (and future) media. The text states, “According to their argument, new media always remediate the old ones…Rather than being separated by different logics, all media including computers follow the same logic of remediation.” Just as they built on preexisting theory, so others have and will continue to build on what they have established. I think this is why don’t know more about them; they are just a part of the process, not the entire thing. As the text states on page 60 “It is the ‘nature’ of computational media that it is open- ended and new techniques are continuously being invented.” However, while these inventors used former influences, they had to question most established ideas to make sure they could achieve what they set out to do.

From the basics that Sutherland, Engelbart, Nelson, Kay and others invented, the visual culture has been able to evolve. The technologies they set up were meant to be made available to all and can continually be modified. On page 61 Manovich states, “experimentation is a default feature of computational media…constantly being extended and thus redefined.” There are new techniques layered over foundations allowing for change and experimentation. These specific inventions also produced a democratic visual culture. From reading the text, I learned that while software development is an industry, it is not solely an industry. Anyone who has the right knowledge and right equipment is able to extend and modify. While reading this article I really saw the vision of how much technology has changed in such a small amount of time. Cassie stated in her blog post about how “Computers seem too complex for many, while the younger generations embrace the meshed technology.” It made me wonder what new technologies are going to appear in my lifetime. Am I going to be able to embrace them with my foundation of basic technology knowledge, or will they exceed my limits and use?