The Language of New Media (Leonardo Books) [Paperback]

Lev Manovich (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262632551 | ISBN-13: 978-0262632553 | Publication Date: March 7, 2002

In this book Lev Manovich offers the first systematic and rigorous theory of new media. He places new media within the histories of visual and media cultures of the last few centuries. He discusses new media's reliance on conventions of old media, such as the rectangular frame and mobile camera, and shows how new media works create the illusion of reality, address the viewer, and represent space. He also analyzes categories and forms unique to new media, such as interface and database.Manovich uses concepts from film theory, art history, literary theory, and computer science and also develops new theoretical constructs, such as cultural interface, spatial montage, and cinegratography. The theory and history of cinema play a particularly important role in the book. Among other topics, Manovich discusses parallels between the histories of cinema and of new media, digital cinema, screen and montage in cinema and in new media, and historical ties between avant-garde film and new media.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lev Manovich is Professor of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego. His book The Language of New Media (MIT Press, 2001) has been hailed as "the most suggestive and broad ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan."

Product Details

• Paperback: 394 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (March 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262632551
• ISBN-13: 978-0262632553
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Languages of Communication and Relationship?, January 1, 2003

By 

Nicholas Croft (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Language of New Media (Leonardo Books) (Paperback)

According to the back cover introduction, "Lev Manovich offers the first systematic and rigorous theory of new media". He does this by describing the developing history of available media as a context for understanding the current digital electronics technology.

On the media of today he notes: "One general effect of the digital revolution is that the avant-garde aesthetic strategies came to be embedded in the command and interface metaphors of the computer software. The contemporary computer media are actually the past avant-garde materialized!"

As is perhaps clear from the book's title, "The Language of New Media" is primarily about the communication 'languages' that the various media make available through their existence. A language, in the sense that Mr. Manovich uses the term, is a collection of methods[in a media-tool/medium context] and their effect on that which may be communicated by a particular work. A wide range of examples, from published or exhibited creations, are cited to help describe the fruits of using a particular method/context that he details.

The strongest recurring theme in the book is how it deals with the history of cinematic language. Cinema is the media which brings under it's umbrella the greatest range of production methodology, so comes the closest to tying the whole text together into a coherent narrative. Otherwise, the book would tend to be more a kind of dictionary of available media methodologies/effects/attributes, each with their own implication towards constructing a sensual or conceptual experience.

Marshall Mcluhan's point, that "The medium is the message", may well serve as the best description of the contents of this book. For those seeking an analysis on the "meaning of the messages", that the media artists convey, it is probably best to seek additional books as a supplement to this one.

18 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, September 29, 2002

By 

Ron Mader "Planeta.com Founder" (Mexico) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Language of New Media (Leonardo Books) (Paperback)

(Planeta.com Journal) -- About a century ago the early years of cinema witnessed the creation of veritable masterpieces. For more than a generation (1980s-1930s) filmmakers produced seminal works that defined the very language of the medium. So at the turn of this century, how do we recognize the equivalent works in "new media" -- computers, the web and other digital compositions? A scientist and theoretician, Lev Manovich guides the way in his exceptional book.

New media links content and interface, providing an unlimited number of ways of accessing a work. This is the norm of the digital age. Manovich argues "modern media is the new battlefield for the competition between database and narrative." (p. 234) But new media does not begin with the Web. In fact, there's no better place to begin than with the 1929 avant garde film classic, Dziga Vertov's "Man with a Movie Camera," which serves as a guide in an innovative prologue.

Later Manovich sums up the achievement of this classic film: "Vertov is able to achieve something that new media designers still have to learn -- how to merge database and narrative into a new form (p. 243).

The Language of New Media offers a rigorous theory of new media. The author discusses new media's reliance on traditions, such as the use of the rectangular frame. He also demonstrates how concepts from film theory and art history play a vital role in understanding where we stand today. This book is highly recommended.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars provocative and smart, January 21, 2008

By 

Serious Fun (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Language of New Media (Leonardo Books) (Paperback)

Manovich's treatment of computer-media expressive forms is intelligent and entirely worthy of serious engagement. At crucial points, however, he makes leaps and grand assertions without proper demonstration.

For example, he speaks of the database as an expressive form, and as the key computer-mediated form of our time. So, why not explain how in the world a database is expressive, or how it makes meaning? He says it is naturally opposed to narrative--they are "natural enemies"--but how precisely does database accomplish anything for anyone without narrative (or interpretation, which is closely related)? What is a database without narrative? I just don't see how he has shown what he asserts. At the same time, i think much of the virtue of this book is through its suggestions rather than its water-tight argumentation. That can make it a fertile reading experience, but frustrating all the same. Books like this one get people talking, even if they are wrong on a lot of points. We need people to be speculative and a bit "loose" like much of this book is, but one must be prepared to read it critically and with some caution.