[-empyre-] Week 2 of the April 2018 discussion: New Media Documentary Practice

Tue Apr 17 05:00:30 AEST 2018

Hi Murat.

I didn’t understand Garrett to say that code is neutral. I understood him to be saying that code does not constitute a document in the way that documentary studies typically does.

I definitely agree that code is not neutral but a mode of power, which is why I wanted to see what other thought about shifting ways that we think about documentary from documents to operations.

Best,
Dale

> On Apr 16, 2018, at 22:00, Murat Nemet-Nejat <muratnn at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hi Garrett,
> 
> "... Document in new media is simply an agreed dumbed down term for the benefit of communicating - similar to desktop as I mentioned and one of my own best loved/most hated, 'virtual'..."
> 
> Your description has the kind of naivety that often plagued the thinking around digital technology. A code is not a neutral term denoting merely convenience ("simply... a dumbed down term for the benefit of communicating..." ) but a structure of knowledge (and potentially of power) with epistemological, social, political consequences. "Convenience" has often turned out to be a bait, a Trojan horse.
> 
> Ciao,
> Murat
> 
> On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 11:12 AM, Dale Hudson <dmh2018 at nyu.edu <mailto:dmh2018 at nyu.edu>> wrote:
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Excellent point, Garrett. 
> 
> I’m interested in this shift from analogue to digital when document no longer become as significant as code. I’m wondering whether it help move discussion on documentary away from representation towards operation. 
> 
> 
>> On Apr 16, 2018, at 13:07, Garrett Lynch <garrett at asquare.org <mailto:garrett at asquare.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> For us, code is not a document.  Document suggests a singular 'thing' or at least a group of things in proximity and closely held together.  The nature of code is that it can't be thought of as a document, physical or 'real' analogies don't work well.  Even the simplest type of code, say for example HTML (which is technically not code but has some of the same qualities) incorporates whole other 'documents' (e.g. images), parts of other documents (e.g. classes and functions) and those can be distributed anywhere when you factor in a network.  Document in new media is simply an agreed dumbed down term for the benefit of communicating - similar to desktop as I mentioned and one of my own best loved/most hated, 'virtual'.
>> 
>> 
>> On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 6:34 PM, Dale Hudson <dmh2018 at nyu.edu <mailto:dmh2018 at nyu.edu>> wrote:
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> Thanks, Luke and Garrett, for this discussion.
>> 
>> I agree about the shortcomings in reducing operational to optical. If anything, the foregrounding of the operation of coding and transcoding should heighten our awareness of the mechanical and chemical operations to capture and render analogue images.
>> 
>> I’ve been interested in new media (for lack of a better term) documentaries (also for lack of a better term) that instruct users in how data is tagged, sorted, and rendered into information, as well as the structural limitations to the kinds of information that can be rendered.
>> 
>> I’ve also been interested in documentaries that emerge in different iterations, conforming to the limitations of a particular venue but then morphing for other venues. This variation also seems important as a mode of instruction that teaches critical practices of “interacting” with digital media. 
>> 
>> In terms of documentary’s relationship with the visual, I have colleagues who work in documentary poetry and theater. For them written or audio testimony is a document. 
>> 
>> I am interested to know what people think (or whether people think) of code as a “document.” 
>> 
>> Best,
>> Dale
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> regards
>> Garrett
>> _________________
>> Garrett at asquare.org <mailto:Garrett at asquare.org>
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>> 
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>> 
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