Sorry for any crosspostings:
>From Digimag 54 - May 2010 http://www.digicult.it/digimag_eng/ LEV MANOVICH: SOFTWARE CULTURE THE COMMON GRAMMAR OF MEDIA Txt: Giulia Simi / Img: Courtesy of Software Studies Initiative http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=1794 Professor of New Media Art at the University of California, both artist and graphic designer, Lev Manovich does not need further presentation. His first book "The language of New Media" was one of the main reference points for many theorists, artists, communicators and designers, that were already well settled down in the "new technology" sector. Ten years later, thanks to the digital diffusion, grammar was already consolidated in the capitalism era and Lev Manovich decided to analyze and study that which today is seen as our "interface with the world": software. From the so called pioneers in the sixties and eighties to the revolution of social media in the last five years, "Software Culture" zooms in on technology and on what differentiates media, giving life to what is called "metamedium", or in other words,the computer. Something to which we confide our memories, our imagination, our wishes, desires and identity. EVAN ROTH: GRAFFITI TAXONOMY WRITING: RESEARCH & DOCUMENTATION Txt: Claudio Musso / Img: Courtesy of Evan Roth http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=1791 You do not need to be too familiar with the world of Writing ( or Graffiti to be more traditional) in order to know that the work made by these artists is essentially momentary. The materials used are temporary, they usually get painted over as a sort of punishment for this violation, all of this puts graffiti at risk. If it is true that since the beginning of this phenomenon numerous photographers and video makers, have tried to slow down the extinction of Writiing, it is also true that their tentatives were limited. This is probably what pushed Evan Roth to create a new method, which offered graffiti artists to archive and store their work and their tags. AARON KOBLIN: AESTHETIC EVOLUTION OF DATA VISUALIZATION Txt: Serena Cangiano / Img: Courtesy of Aaron Koblin http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=1795 A couple of years ago Lev Manovich, famous guru of new media, was introducing the concept of Information Aesthetics, referring to the ways of visualizing emerging information and based on the creativity and alternative representations. On the basis of this concept, quantitive and qualitative data have become the main interest and desire of artists and designers, who have already begun to experiment new techniques and ways to generate shapes and fabulous software. Today info-aesthetics could be considered as an actual academic discipline, but most of all a fertile context of research and planning, where key elements for the "information society" are discussed, like for example, information overload, decision making processes, interfaces rom the future and the elaboration techniques of data on the spot. Out of all the people, who are contributing to this project, introducing new conceptual elements and technological experimentation, Aaron Koblin plays an important role. ------------------ DIGICULT is an online/offline Italian platform, created to spread digital art and culture worldwide. It focuses on the impact of new technologies and modern sciences on art, design, culture and contemporary society. DIGICULT is based on participation of more than 40 professionals, representing a wide Italian Network of critics, curators and journalists in the field. DIGICULT is the editor of the magazine DIGIMAG, which focuses on some cultural and artistic issues like internet art, hacktivism, electronica, video art, audiovideo, art & science, design, new media, software art, performing art. http://www.digicult.it/digimag_eng/board.asp _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
