I am not an artist, i don't understand art but love to look at it and appreciate it and am often very moved by it. I love music but I do not create it, but I participate in it, am influenced and manipulated by its effects. I am not a creator of software or technology design but I appreciate it, use it and admit I am manipulated but its influence. I am guilty of using without thinking or appreciating what I have. I am a user!
I am glad that designers try to keep ahead of me, push me to keep up, constantly are giving me new options to explore. Manovich seems to be accusing new media professionals of "creating new standards, formats and design expectation to maintian their status." I find myself wondering if this is a bad thing. Am I wrong to be glad that the professionals are keeping themselves ahead of the home users?
I have very little experience with computer games or virtual reality software so I do not understand much of the technical implictions but can appreciate their nature and creativity. I find it hard to appreciate the features of the operations but I have a better idea of how the filters, patches and scripts can affect the user's experience with the game. I am appreciative of email filters and photoshop filters that allow is to modify our information and images but I have never fooled myself into thinking that I was creativing something from scratch. This reminds me of my classwork on the Prezi project. it was interesting to note that as Manovich points out, someone has decided that a white, female voice best represents an instructor for this and most software.
I realized that I was making choices within the available software and was grateful for those choices and guidance. It never ocurred to me to be doubtful or skeptical of being manipulted or restricted or stifled in my creativity. Manvich seems to be stressing the importance of this reality.
"An artist operates like God creating the universe". Manovich explains how these operations of the art world are really representations of innumerable centers of culture. I find myself wondering how detrimental is ti so our society if less and less is original? Is it less creative if art or music or technology is a montage of prior knowledge and experience mixed with new knowledge? Is Manovich saying that it is important to track the history of these art forms and how they all tie into some knowledge from the past, in order to help us understand and predict where they are going?
I was interested in his discussion of our becoming a culture dominated by the distribution system. Things sold, buyers manipulated, bombarded, unable to " construct a unique self but instead adopting already pre-established identities." He tells us that we are participating in the "changing collage of personal whims and fancies" mapped out and coded into the software by the companies. I understand that Manovich wants us to be aware, informed consumers. He wants our culture's integrity, individuality, and creativity to be maintained so that we don't all become slaves or robots to somebody else's pre-designed program.
He sounds like he is saying we need to create and think for ourselves but he still says," I would prefer using Microsoft Windows exactly the way it was installed in the factory." I can agree with that.
Should we be concerned about "cut and paste" options and default libraries and databases? Are our knowledge bases growing to small and standardized? Are we being led to linked information the way early films used propaganda just because it is free and more accessible?
How can we avoid this "Plato's cave" moment in society? Are we really not seeing the bigger picture or missing out on new knowledge by borrowing from existing objects and copying and modifying? I am not sure if I can see how big of a problem this is now or will be in the future.
Manovich discusses 3 categories:
1. Selection- used by both designer and end user (eg. designers borrowing from existing objects and he DJ's selection of music)
2. Compositing- used by designers (eg. combining moving image sequences/stills into a single sequence into an electronic mix for movies) I find the quote interesting, "The world is too large for a single image".
3. Teleaction- end users ( a way to access, not create new media; the ability to see and act at a distance) Is this collapse of physical distance going to be a big problem? Are we in danger of becoming a " claustrophobic world without any depth or horizon, the earth becomes our prison."
What are the boundaries between the natural and the cultural; between what is already assimilated within human nature and what is still new and threatening? Will technology speed up our ulimate demise? Should we be worried that a missile from the other side of the world can come take a look at us and then decide to detonate? Should we be worried that we are being programmed by our computers? Manovich makes me worry that this awesome technology that we have is eventually going to be our big downfall.
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