[-empyre-] Re: new media

["Nemo Nox" <lists@nemonox.com>]

Nick Montfort wrote:
>My short answer is "the creative and communicative uses 
>of the computer." Studies that enlighten our understanding
>of this topic should be welcome in new media. I don't see
>new media as a bin of objects that includes or excludes an
>e-text of Moby Dick, but as a discipline. It can consider 
>whatever is helpful in understanding creative and artistic
>computing.

Using a tool (the computer) to define a field
(new media) may create problems. We don't define
music as "the creative and communicative uses of
the musical instruments".

If I use computers to create a movie, it is 
still a movie, not "new media". Is is certainly
a different product than it would have been if 
made without computers, but it is still the same
language. This is why I asked if the definition
would be based on support or language.

If we adopt a definition based on support, a
book written before computers were invented
and simply copied to a digital format would be
"new media". If we adopt a definition based on
language, just porting an existing language to
a new support would not be enough to make it
"new media". This is why I used the "Moby 
Dick" example.

Also, I find it weird that a field of study
would carry the label "new". How long will it
be new? And what happens when it is not new
anymore? Will it be just "media"? Then is it
different from other media just because of
time or does it have inherent characteristics?


Nemo Nox
http://www.nemonox.com