Software takes command : extending the language of new media / by Lev Manovich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Manovich, Lev, author.

Series:

International texts in critical media aesthetics ; Volume 5.

International texts in critical media aesthetics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computer graphics.

Computer software--Social aspects.

Computer software.

Computers and civilization.

Mass media--Technological innovations.

Mass media.

Social media.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (370 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York ; London : Bloomsbury, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Software has replaced a diverse array of physical, mechanical, and electronic technologies used before 21st century to create, store, distribute and interact with cultural artifacts. It has become our interface to the world, to others, to our memory and our imagination - a universal language through which the world speaks, and a universal engine on which the world runs. What electricity and combustion engine were to the early 20th century, software is to the early 21st century. Offering the the first theoretical and historical account of software for media authoring and its effects on the practice and the very concept of 'media,' the author of The Language of New Media (2001) develops his own theory for this rapidly-growing, always-changing field. What was the thinking and motivations of people who in the 1960 and 1970s created concepts and practical techniques that underlie contemporary media software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, Final Cut and After Effects? How do their interfaces and tools shape the visual aesthetics of contemporary media and design? What happens to the idea of a 'medium' after previously media-specific tools have been simulated and extended in software? Is it still meaningful to talk about different mediums at all? Lev Manovich answers these questions and supports his theoretical arguments by detailed analysis of key media applications such as Photoshop and After Effects, popular web services such as Google Earth, and the projects in motion graphics, interactive environments, graphic design and architecture. Software Takes Command is a must for all practicing designers and media artists and scholars concerned with contemporary media.

Contents:

Intro

International Texts In Critical Media Aesthetics

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Understanding media

Software, or the engine of contemporary societies

What is software studies?

Cultural software

Media applications

From documents to performances

Why the history of cultural software does not exist

Summary of the book's narrative

PART 1 Inventing media software

1 Alan Kay's universal media machine

Appearance versus function

"Simulation is the central notion of the Dynabook"

The permanent extendibility

The computer as a metamedium

2 Understanding metamedia

The building blocks

Media-independent vs. media-specific techniques

Inside Photoshop

There is only software

PART 2 Hybridization and evolution

3 Hybridization

Hybridity vs. multimedia

The evolution of a computer metamedium

Hybridity: examples

Strategies of hybridization

4 Soft evolution

Algorithms and data structures

What is a "medium"?

The metamedium or the monomedium?

The evolution of media species

PART 3 Software in action

5 Media design

After Effects and the invisible revolution

The aesthetics of hybridity

Deep remixability

Layers, transparency, compositing

After Effects interface: from "time-based" to "composition-based"

3D space as a media design platform

Import/export: design workflow

Variable form

Amplification

Conclusion

Software, hardware, and social media

Media after software

Software epistemology

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Creative Commons. CC BY-NC 3.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

ISBN:

9781623562618

1623562619

9781472544988

1472544986

9781623566722

162356672X

OCLC:

852757969