Origin of Digital Species
Lev Manovich1 and Simon Cook2 argue that the internet and digital culture should be understood as a product of late Victorian and Modernist visual forms, but it is the goal of this paper to show that the internet and digital culture, while heavily influenced by these visual forms, is not the sole product of them, and that the time period between 1930 and the present day must also be included when analyzing the history of the internet. The best illustration of this point is the similarity and yet fundamental difference between the cinematographic experiments of the Soviet Constructivist Dziga Vertov and the modern visual jockey artists known as the “NomIg Collective”. By analyzing the art forms that exist on the internet it is possible to see how they are related to the preceding forms of art that existed in the times from which Manovich and Cook claim the internet to be a product.
Before the terms Late Victorian, Modernist and Post-modernist visual forms are used, it is important to define what is meant by each of these terms, and to explain how they are all in essence connected to each other.
During the Victorian era the world was transformed. Starting with Darwin’s theory of evolution, the world of science crecendoed into a period of rapid discovery and accelerated advancement that was previously unknown. It was out of this boom in the intellectual world that man’s desire to possess all knowledge began to seem more of an achievable goal and less like medieval lore . It was around the Victorian period that all modern forms of classification are began to expand: Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Museums are Libraries -to name a few forms- started to grow into their modern form as common tool...
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...tov the need to refer to the cinematographer and the camera as machines that can engineer a product as well as any other piece of machinery. However, NomIg makes no self references, there is no portrayal of the computer or the human as anything specific in their work, and so they leave out a basic tenet of the Modernist manifesto.
When the internet and digital culture is analyzed through the types of art it inspires it becomes clear that while the foundations for computers and artistic technique are a inspired by and partly the product of late Victorian and Modernist visual forms, it is not possible to ignore the effect that postmodernism has had on these art forms. To understand digital culture, regard should be given to both the Modernists who created the scientific framework and the Postmodernists who created the subject matter to exist within that framework.
The introduction of the printing press changed society permanently. Along with this invention came the emergence of mass production of texts. Suddenly, information could be efficiently replicated, thus facilitating the dissemination process. Widespread alphabetic literacy, as Havelock states, could finally become a reality. Print media, however, are fundamentally restricted by their physical nature. Enter the Internet, arguably modern society’s greatest technological advancement, with its ability to digitally recontextualize the written word. Again, forever changing the nature of communication. This paper will focus on the web’s functional, social, and cultural remediations of print media. It can be argued that the Internet is a modernized version of the printing press. The web created an explosion in production, self-published content, and new forms of machine art. Through contrasting physical and digital print media, it will be shown that the Internet enhances aspects of the printing press in defining itself.
As human technology develops it is a potentiality that the use of prosthetic limbs may become more advanced that the real human limb giving people the edge on sports fields and in the workforce. An imbalance between prosthetics and human limbs may become present as people may willingly have their limbs replaced by a robotic or part biological counterpart.
... Textbook Prices Increasing Faster Than Tuition And Inflation." Http://www.huffingtonpost.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.
Statistics show 16- to 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger, which is due to distracted driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 2 (two) seconds, at 60 mph, means you have driven blindly for half the length of a football field. The risk of fatality is 3.6 times higher, when they are driving with passengers than when alone. For many years, the correlation between driving behavior and age has interested highway safety researchers and administrators. It is general knowledge that the greatest risk of motor vehicle crash...
The essay “Into the electronic millennium” is a cynical observation of an author named Sven Birkerts, towards the electronic era of 21st century. Author’s overall intent of the essay is to put forth an awareness with a pinch of bias on the electronic damage to the society. He makes many assertions to argue his points which are some what valid even today, some of them which capture quick attention are: “The electronic media are invisible in process, but omnipresent in product” (Birkerts), “the only way that we can understand what is happening- what has already happened- is by the way of serve and unnatural dissociation of sensibility” (Birkerts). With all these impressive protestations, author is trying to make his readers ponder about the topic, as he says, “ To get the grip on the dimensions of the change, you must force yourself to imagine -deeply and in non-televisual terms- what the world was like a hundred, even fifty, years ago” (Birkerts).
Thomas Shadwell’s famous scientific satire The Virtuoso lampooned the frivolous and non-utilitarian scientific processes that were prevalent during the early years of the Royal Society of Science. Although Shadwell targeted his contemporary self-proclaimed virtuosos who practiced science only as a fun diversion, he simultaneously managed to predict some of the more dire consequences that would come about from the development of machine technology and the process of industrialization. It would be disingenuous to imply that Shadwell was writing a Marxist critique of technological development and its effect on the English workforce, or even that he was an anti-machine Luddite, as both of those ideologies would not come to be developed until well after two hundred years after the Restoration period. It can, however, be said that many scenes in The Virtuoso make accurate predictions as to what scientific advancement would bring and to what effect it would have, and that Shadwell’s play doubles as both a critique of the scientific process of the Royal Society and of the Industrial Revolution and the socio-economic chaos it would cause, even though it was still one hundred years away from beginning. Industrialization is still a long way in the making, but it’s effects could be seen long beforehand.
I picked an article on the prosthetic limbs, which are controlled by your own thought. The unique part of this prosthetic is that It has 26 joints, is controlled by the person’s own mind and has the power to curl up to a incredible 45 pounds. Imagine being able to control a prosthetic just by thinking about the next move. The limb has been described as Modular, which gives them the power to accommodate anyone in particular that has either the hand missing to the whole entire arm. It can be also used as a surrogate arm for those who have suffered a stroke and lost movement of their own arm. This just an incredible part of science that getting develop and study by John Hopkins University.
...ur brain. They have already made huge improvements in this area of prosthetics by creating some that can be controlled by the brain, but they aren’t used over a mass amount of people. In order to reach these goals we have to supply funding to the prosthetic and orthotic companies. Some are still using techniques that have been around for decades. In order for the field of prosthetics to advance in this world steps have to be taken in educating people in the new technology. I personally hope that in my lifetime I will be able to see prosthetics grow to what it can be in helping everyone, not just the people who can afford. This also means that we need to not just make prosthetics that work, but that have the patients comfort in mind. Overall prosthetics should be available to everyone and anyone, and the use of the CAD/CAM technology should be able to take us there.
Virtual and digital technologies are rampant in American culture and thoroughly utilized in entertainment mediums like television, movies, magazines, and video games. Our capitalist economy creates a fertile environment for these mediums to prosper by feeding off the public's hunger for entertainment. Because these industries are in such high demand and accrue billion dollar revenues, new technologies are often conceived in and funded by these trades: "For, in essence, all socially relevant new image media, from classical antiquity to the revolution of digital images, have advanced to serve the interests of maintaining power and control or maximizing profits" (Grau 339). That being the case, new technologies "hardly ever…advanced solely for artistic purposes" (Grau 339). Because "power" and "profits" are the central means of motivation in our culture; art, in the classical sense, is often an afterthought. In an age where entertainment and art intertwine, however, distinctions between the two based upon their creation are impossible. With advances in technology and, in turn, art, our ideas and traditions of comparison should also develop to justly analyze new media: "Although art history and the history of the media have always stood in an interdependent relationship and art has commented on, taken up, or even promoted each new media development, the view of art history as media history…is still underdeveloped" (Grau 4). In order to embrace virtual art as a valid outlet of artistic expression, its relationship to media and unique position in the history of art must first be acknowledged.
When Luke Skywalker's hand was sliced off by Darth Vader in the trilogy Star Wars, he received a new prosthetic hand which was fully functional in use and appearance.Today, this science fiction is becoming reality as an exciting new technology called Biomechatronics is promising revolutionary advances in the field of prosthetics.
5. Burns, William E. Science in the Enlightenment: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2003. Print.
This essay will discuss differences in motives which have driven ancient and modern science, arguing that 17th century alterations of power structures led to the ultimate division between modern and ancient science and the eruption of modern science as it is today. Comparisons will be drawn regarding knowledge accessibility, prevailing philosophies and ideologies, and the relationship between science and the church.
Modernism can be defined as the post-industrial revolutionary era, where which the western world began to see a change in all spheres of living. The effects of the industrial revolution became prevalent towards the end of the nineteenth century and the modernist movement drew inspiration from this widespread change. Artists, writers, architects, designers and musicians, all began to embrace the changing world and denounce their pre-taught doctrines and previous ways of producing work. Society felt the urge to progressively move forward toward a modern way of thinking and living.
The computer evolution has been an amazing one. There have been astonishing achievements in the computer industry, which dates back almost 2000 years. The earliest existence of the computer dates back to the first century, but the electronic computer has only been around for over a half-century. Throughout the last 40 years computers have changed drastically. They have greatly impacted the American lifestyle. A computer can be found in nearly every business and one out of every two households (Hall, 156). Our Society relies critically on computers for almost all of their daily operations and processes. Only once in a lifetime will a new invention like the computer come about.
Hence, any debate of the future becoming digital must take into consideration the reaction of the media to the technological innovations of the world, from the Personal Computers (PC) to the smallest Smartphone. Although mass media has increased with technological innovations, what driv...