In “New Media from Borges to HTML” Manovich explores how “new media” has influenced art, software, and our accessibility. He begins by giving a brief introduction to how new technologies are absorbed into our culture (here in the US) almost instantaneously, where as “…higher costs. Involved give other countries more time to reflect upon new technologies…” (pg.13). He then continues to point out the difference between the United States and other countries regarding “New Media Art”. In Eastern Europe the art world was dominated by the “greats”, attempting to make a name for one’s self was nearly impossible through traditional media, but when media art hit it allowed for new names to flourish. Although this was a breakthrough, Manovich acknowledges the downside to this, as technology begins to improve it came to a point where creating on the latest computer was held higher than “…any deeper conceptual ideological or aesthetic issues…” (Pg.15). He also hypothesizes that it will be the creators of technology who will ultimately be regarded as the most Influential artists of this time period rather than those who use their software/tech.
We are still at a time however—as Manovich points out on page 16—where traditional artists are respected more than their technological counterparts. There is a certain bias that still runs rampant where writers and artists are held on a pedestal compared even those who have made said artist’s work more accessible. Shifting away from the art world, Manovich then dives into defining and describing new media. He compares new media to cyberculture and ultimately believes that new media is the umbrella in which cyberculture and similar facets of this new era fall under. Even though he does a great job at providing a definition to new media, Manovich also recognizes the issues with giving a concrete definition:
“…it [new media] has to be revised every few years, as yet another part of culture comes to rely on computing technology for distribution…we may suspect that eventually most forms of culture will use computer distribution…new media described this way will lose any specificity.” (pg.17).
Manovich, Lev. 2003. New Media from Borges to HTML. The MIT Press.
New Media 