The Language of New Media & Hypermediacy

This week’s reading was The Language of New Media written by Lev Manovich.

In Chapter 1, Manovich discuses the different principles of new media. One of the attributes is modularity, which Manovich describes as “the fractal structure of new media.” I was unfamiliar with this term and if you are as well, the definition, as given by Dictionary.com, is:

frac⋅tal

–noun Mathematics, Physics.

a geometrical or physical structure having an irregular or fragmented shape at all scales of measurement between a greatest and smallest scale such that certain mathematical or physical properties of the structure, as the perimeter of a curve or the flow rate in a porous medium, behave as if the dimensions of the structure (fractal dimensions) are greater than the spatial dimensions.

I thought this was an unusual way of describing media; we look at media from theoretical viewpoints or historical viewpoints, but seldom from a geometrical one. However, as he expands on the assertion, we can see he is talking about the different elements that contribute to an overall medium. “These elements are assembled into larger-scale objects but continue to maintain their separate identities” (30). Wait a minute… that sounds a hell of a lot like hypermediacy. If we recall Bolter and Grusin’s description of hypermediate media, it includes: something you look at, with lots of windows, it creates a fullness (by showing multiple views and information on one topic), the knowledge is based on the opaque, it requires multiple glances (like a montage), it shows many perspectives or shifting views, and the media itself is present.

If we come back to Manovich’s description, we cal draw more parallels. He describes, “in short, a new media object consists of independent parts, each which consists of smaller independent parts, and so on, down to the level of the smallest ‘atoms’ – pixels, 3-D points, or text characters” (31). We are seeing, over and over, the strength of hypermediacy in new media.

Another way in which Manovich’s depiction of new media parallels to Bolter and Grusin’s idea of hypermediacy is the variability factor. “A new media object is not something fixed once and for all, but something that can exist in different, potentially infinite versions” (36). I think this ability for new media to be liquid is another parallel to hypermediacy. Imagine the current way in which we watch football. The screen is crowded with stats and running scores from concurrent games. Similar to websites, in general, this screenshot has a template and the content can be interchanged depending on need. If a certain player scores, a bio of that player can be put at the forefront on the screen view. The ability to bring into play relevant knowledge is a huge part of hypermediacy.

However, infinite variability in new media is also laced with potential pitfalls. For example, the endless modalities available to every individual are dialectically isolating. In other words, the freedom to customize almost every experience quickly erodes the very sense of community that has been so heavily promised by writers like Manovich. I am reminded of another book, The Limits of the City by Murray Bookchin. Within, Bookchin charts the development of urban landscapes as they evolve beyond a concentration of human relationships, into the isolating, and alienating postmodern society where individuals relate to commodities more readily than they relate to each other.

In many ways, networked media is the ultimate fulfillment of urban planning, where countless cultures can exist in relative harmony within a small space. However, in entirely removing the spatial limitations of cohabitation, hypermediacy also severs the last socializing imperative: namely, the bumping heads of too many people in too small a space.

In its most extreme hypermediacy evokes in my mind the coldest corners of cyberspace. Where small groups of people cobble together esoteric affiliations by shouting over one another endlessly. Of course, much is to like about hypermediacy, but there is much that may well be a further source of isolation and social imprisonment in exchange for its superficially limitless mode of consumption.