Digital dialectic : new essays on new media / edited by Peter Lunenfeld. [0262122138 (hardcover : alk. paper) ] Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, c1999.
Call#: Van Pelt Library QA76.9.C66 D54 1999

 

The Digital Dialectic, edited by Peter Lunenfeld, features a number of essays focused on resolving apparent contradictions that arise in new media theories. The main approach taken by most of the authors here is to utilize conceptual ways of viewing new media in tandem with a practical outlook on the potentiality of this novel group of technologies. As Lunenfeld explains, these essays look to see where new media can go rather than simply where it is. His introduction does a good, albeit brief, job of outlining what he means by dialectic and how this could apply to new media; he also fleshes out a definition of “digital” and compares this to analog, thereby inviting comparisons that could provide useful for my investigation. However, Lunenfeld and the other authors fail to really explain the useful significance of examining this dialectic. Other than urging us to not take an “all or nothing” approach to this new media, no real definitive conclusions come from these reports. Perhaps this is the point, since new media studies have only existed for a relatively short period of time. Or perhaps I’ve been somewhat desensitized to this way of thinking since I’ve grown up existing in and accepting this type of new media compromise. Either way, a little more push towards a greater practical application for these theories would have helped.

Aside from the introduction and general tidbits taken from the book, I think Lev Manovich’s essay, “What is Digital Cinema?” provides the greatest information and opinions for my paper topic. This essay examines how tracing the filmic image change from “traditional” film to digital technology allows for a formation of the logic of the digital moving image. This fits in well with my paper because I want to compare older screen technologies (film and TV) with newer image methods of production; Manovich’s thesis thus provides me with at least one argument through which I can examine my own views on differences in old and new filmic screen images. Manovich also provides some background information on what he considers “digital media” to be, including its evolution from multimedia and thus its distance from traditional cinematic realism. But, his main example, that of the CD-ROM, is slightly outdated and not as useful to my direct purposes – therefore, I plan on using newer examples from more recent sources in my paper.