Becoming Digital

Until the last few decades, developments in media technology and computational technology remained separate, as computer developers created faster ways of processing and storing information and media creators moved from painting portraits to taking photographs and then capturing moving images. With the recent exponential growth in computational power and storage capacity, today’s definition of “data” has significantly evolved from its humble punch-card beginnings to encompass the majority of media to which society is exposed on a daily basis.

In the Digital Age in which we live, media is affected by computer technology in that static pieces of content are stored discretely in machine language (at its core, zeroes and ones), which ultimately means that media can be dynamically manipulated and distributed unlike ever before. Manovich refers to new media as “automated” and “modular”, both traits that correlate directly to the object-oriented structures of computer programs. In the database architecture upon which digital data storage is based, a set of information consists of encapsulating objects that contain dynamic data about their “state” and also perform functions or “subroutines” on other data objects. Similarly, digital media is stored as a data object (e.g. a sound or video file) that is “tagged” with information about the artists or companies involved in its production. However, unlike canvas paintings or even photographic copies of these paintings, new media is subject to computer algorithms, as all forms of media (audio, video, text, and photograph) are all reduced to binary code. These allow for a whole new variety of user content: content that stems off of existing work from existing artists. We find ourselves in an age where any general user can download programs that edit text, photographs, audio, and video, using computer algorithms to add sound effects, cut out voices, or even intermingle clips of multiple forms of media. A great example of new media is the rising art form of “machinima” films. These films are created by media users who manipulate console or computer game constructs to create films with plot lines, themes, and individual characters. One such film, “Red vs. Blue”, portrays the struggle of two characters from Halo who want to put down their guns and talk instead of entering the original ‘battle royale’ construct of the Halo game. This is only one example of the transient nature of new media, made possible simply by the numerical representation of media forms as data.

When operating under the general rule that anything that is reduced to computerized data can be manipulated, it is clear that becoming digital means entering a world of dynamic data that is altered either by the personal creativity of users or by computer algorithms, sometimes transitioning from one media form to another. The modularity and dynamic nature of computerized data are now properties of a new media, allowing for the development of peer-produced content and providing the user with not merely a painting and a canvas, but a paint brush, or graphics editing application, with which to modify and redistribute content to his or her heart’s desire into an infinite databank – the internet.