Media Mutation
Lev Manovich has raised both an interesting dilemma, while also highlighting the changing nature of culture: How to ‘organise’ (understand) the massive explosion of non-elite culture which has grown since the advent of the internet.
At the beginning of his essay Manovich suggests that software is being developed which can recognise various aspects of a unique cultural ‘product.’ It would appear that this is the first crucial step in building the IT infrastructure needed to collate the vast volumes of cultural output which are being generated worldwide.
But, before exploring how that software might work, it feels important to explore some the context which Manovich has outlined in terms of his assessment of the changing nature of cultural production.
Firstly, as with so many other aspects of human existence, the tendency has been for an overrepresentation of dominant ‘white’ western culture. Manovich recognises this cultural bias and explores it through the example of turn-of-the-century artists in comparison to the diversity of art that exists from the rest of the world — but which is largely un-stored, un-collated and, as a result, unknown.
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As Manovich explains it is important to ask who is doing the collating and who decides what is important? As he says, he is interested in trying to gauge what is happening ‘outside’ the museum rather than what is happening inside it.
This prompts the question: To what extent can any software developments ensure that it reflects and empowers the many worldwide ‘nodes’ which in turn need to reflect inputs, such as language? (Working on the basis of course that culture is not produced solely in the English language).
Manovich himself has pointed out that alternative models which seek to measure and organise global cultural output “use information about visual media — creation date, author name, tags, favorites, etc — and do not analyze the media itself. “
Here the struggle is to find new forms of software which can actually listen / watch / comprehend global media output. A huge challenge.
The hardware aspects of the project are also a giant challenge in their own right — this may stat with the assistance of super computers, but access to processing power (along with the necessary political will) may be hard to come by.
Finally, I think it is important to raise the issue as to whether this project is actually achievable and to what extent any ‘reason’ can actually be applied to the billions-strong global mind which now exists via the web. It may be more productive to embrace, and accept, the chaos.
