Principles of New Media

Numerical Representation
All new media objects are numerical representations composed of digital code. They can be described mathematically and are subject to algorithmic manipulation. In such ways, media becomes programmable. New media objects that originate from computer creation follow this numerical form. Objects can also be converted to this form from old media. Digitization is the process by which continuous data is converted.

Digitization consists of sampling and quantization. The frequency of a data's sampling becomes its resolution, and discrete data is what sampling turns continuous data into. Fundamentally, communication and language rely on the discrete units of an object. Whereas the rising technology of the industrial age standardized modern media processes, new media relies on the logic of individual customization. Taking the dimensions of an old media sculpture and converting them into a language that a computer can regenerate is an example of this principle.

Modularity
Manovich calls this principle the "fractal structure of new media," as they retain the same structure on different scales. The media's elements are represented as collections of discrete samples that maintain their separate identities and parts. Many new media objects follow structural programming styles within computer programs, making deletion and substitution of its parts relatively easy.

For example, within Powerpoint, I am able to take an object from a website and insert a re-sized copy of it into a slide. The object becomes part of the Powerpoint program, but it remains distinct and is easily manipulated.

Automation
The automation of operations within media creation are made possible by the media's numerical coding and modular structure. The functions of automative processes partially remove human intentionality from the creative process. A computer user modifies or creates a media object using simple templates or algorithms, which can then be included in basic software. An example that comes to mind is the software created by the Weta Digital crew that worked on The Lord of the Rings movies. They were able to create computer-generated, artificially intelligent armies that had automatic programming, allowing them to follow particular functions of running, battling, and behaving in unique but designed manners to create the effect of many warring bodies.

Media access is one area of media use that has been subjected to increasing automation. As much as automation has to do with creating new objects, it is also concerned with accessing and reusing existing media objects.

Variability
A media object is not fixed and definite, but can exist in infinite versions. The particular sequence in which a human creator manually assembled an object of old media meant that the product was unchanging. It could be duplicated and copied, but were essentially identical to the master. In new media, there is the characteristic of variability that allows for many different versions. Such versions are often, in part, assembled automatically by a computer. In this manner, the principles of automation and variability are closely connected.

Within the principle of variability, the elements of media can be stored in a media database, allowing for the content to be separated and created into many different forms and interfaces. Some media elements can be manipulated in an arena that has automated features, which permits a user to customize an object by selecting unique variations of automatically provided choices.

Hypermedia is a new media structure that allows multimedia elements to be connected within a document, though the elements and structure remain distinct form each other. Thus, meaning and functionality derive not form set definitions but from proximity to prototype. Within hypermedia, elements of a whole can be modified or generated in immediate response to a user's interaction with a program. This can be referred to as open interactivity. 

Transcoding
Manovich calls this principle "the most substantial consequence of the computerization of media." A computer file consisting of machine-readable content enters into a dialog with other computer files. Such dimensions belong to the computer's own language without reference to human culture. The computer layer (function and variable, computer language and data structure) and cultural layer (short story, comedy and tragedy) influence each other, and are composited together within new media.

In order to transcode something, it must be translated into a format that the computer can understand within its own pragmatics and epistemology. Media, in order for it to be "new", must be programmable.  If I have created a Word document with images and text that I want to see turned into a website, the content must be programmed and coded in order for it to be accessed.


In my opinion, the principle of automation has the most drastic effect on a culture undergoing computerization. Without the understanding of function and creation, automated elements are taken as a given and natural in today's world. Automated selections and starting-point templates are now expected, without consideration for how they came to be or what we might do without them. An oil-painter three hundred years ago had to make his own paint, combining raw materials to create colors that were unique and difficult to replicate exactly. Now, anyone can walk into an art supply store and select pre-made oil colors. And if someone wants the color green, they don't even have to mix blue and yellow if they don't want to, they can buy a tube of green paint that is automatically available to them to utilize as they wish. Good or bad? I'm not sure, but automation definitely creates a relevant distinction as to how media is perceived.