Syndicate: Book annoncement: The Language of New Media by Lev Manovich

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@transmediale.de>]

Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 23:46:47 -0400
From: nettime
Subject: Book annoncement: The Language of New Media by Lev Manovich



For more information please visit
http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/MANGHF00


The Language of New Media
Lev Manovich

The MIT Press: March 2001. ISBN 0-262-13374-1.
352 pp., 55 illus. $34.95/=A323.95 (cloth).


"Spend some of your time with this book, as time, in every sense,
will prove that its succinct and careful analysis of new media is the
most fundamental yet dynamic made. It is a must for filmmakers,
communication theorists, television producers, computer scientists,
programmers, cultural critics, artists, cultural historians, and
designers."
	Sara Diamond, Artistic Director, Media and Visual Arts, The
Banff Centre

"This is simply the best book that I have read on the aesthetics of new medi=
a."
	Jay David Bolter, Wesley Chair of New Media, Georgia
Institute of Technology

"Manovich not only describes the recent history of new media, but its
foundations, and its intellectual and aesthetic debts to such aspects
of media history as Russian Constructivism and early cinema."
	Tom Gunning, Professor of Art History and Cinema and Media,
University of Chicago

"Lev Manovich's The Langauge of New Media is a major event for those
of us interested in understanding the nature  of electronic
literature and art."
	N. Katherine Hayles, Professor of English and of Design and
New Media, University of California, Los Angeles


In this book Lev Manovich 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
shows how categories and forms unique to new media, such as interface
and database, work with the more familiar conventions to make
possible a new kind of aesthetic.

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.

The book looks at most areas of new media: Web sites, virtual worlds,
VR, human-computer interfaces, computer games, computer animation,
digital video, special effects, and interactive intallations. It also
contains detailed analysis of new media works, from such commercial
classics as Myst and Jurassic Park, to the projects of new media
artists and collectives such as art+com and Jeffrey Shaw.

Most writings on new media are full of speculation about the future.
Manovich book analyses new media as it has actually developed up
until this point, at the same time pointing to directions for new
media designers and artists which have not been yet explored.


Lev Manovich (www.manovich.net) is an Associate Professor in the
Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego.
Born in Moscow, he holds advanced degrees in cognitive psychology and
visual culture. He has been working with computer media for almost
twenty years as an artist, designer, animator, computer programmer,
and teacher. His work has been published in more than twenty
countries, and he frequently lectures on new media around the world.


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