Friday, November 12, 2010

It's Not Straight

Gilles Deleuze

Felix Guattari

 Below is a short passage taken from A Thousand Plateaus by philosophers, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. It describes the idea of Rhizome.

A rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle,
between things, interbeing,
rhizome is alliance, uniquely alliance. The tree imposes the verb "to
be" but the fabric of the rhizome is the conjunction, "and
intermezzo. The tree is filiation, but the... and ...
and..."This conjunction carries enough force to shake and uproot the
verb "to be."
Rhizome
When I first read this article, I found myself tilting my head and saying "huh?" I could not wrap my mind around the concept of rhizome, and I could not understand why the two authors kept bringing different examples to describe the idea of rhizome and why it is so important. After reading it a couple more times, I started to see the point that they are trying to get at. Anything that is more than mere straight line, anything that is interconnected and is intertwined, anything that is non-hierarchical is "rhizome." Anything... like the progress of New Media. In the New Media from Borges to HTML, Lev Manovich talks about the evolution of New Media; what it is, how they came about, etc. The term New Media seems to get tossed around a lot, especially in this digital world today. However, do people really know what it means when they use the term? I bet when people are asked to define it, people will find it a lot harder than they've expected. Is "New Media" one of those words, those concepts, you think you know, or you vaguely know, but cannot be described in one concise sentence? 

Lev Manovich
In his article, Manovich, was able to posit 8 propositions of New Media: (1) NM as not cyberculture, (2) NM as computer technology as distribution platform, (3) NM as digital data controlled by software, (4) NM as mix of existing cultural convention and software convention, (5) NM as aesthetics of the emergence of modern technology and communication device, (6) NM as means to solve algorithm faster than previously, (7) NM as an Avant-Garde and a meta media, and (8) NM as similar concept to post WWII art and computing. However, as one can see, he never gave a concise explanation as to what it is. Instead, he gave us this list and gave situational explanation and a comparison that presents vague idea of what it might be. Is such explanation good enough to describe what New Media is?

I think yes, according to Deleuze and Guattari. New Media is, in fact, a perfect example of a "rhizome." New Media is highly complex. It feeds on each other, affect each other, and branch off of one another, just as the 8 proposition describes. Thus, New Media gets more complicated and highly advanced as it grows. It does not have a beginning nor an end, it is in the middle, and it is alliance. It sure is not a straight line.
This young man quite confidently defines what "New Media" is. Is he doing a good job? Does he cover all 8 proposition Manovich proposed? Does he successfully refers New Media as "Rhizome" in his own words?

3 comments:

  1. I like that you point out that the idea of "new media" is much more vague than we tend to think. We tend to take for granted knowing exactly what "new media" is, but really it's much more complicated than we usually imagine.

    I think that Dan describes only part of what new media is, when put in the context of Lev Manovich's article. He touches on the idea that it is an extension of ourselves (new ways of communication) and that it is still being developed, but he promulgates the idea that sites such as youtube have magically come to be. Part of this might be due to the fact that he's an employee of youtube and has to make the company look especially good.

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  2. I agree with Cait, it is good that you point out how vague the term gets. On the video on my post shows exactly how the term is not at all defined. And since the term is not defined, why in the world do we need it anyways? it just irritates me that Manovich thinks he is a hotshot know-it-all.

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  3. New Media being many things may be part of getting away from easy linear answers. Lately it seems the popular use of New vs. Old Media seems to be oversimplified to magazines and television vs. social media like YouTube and Facebook. Manovich points toward things that digital technology can uniquely do.

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