The Double Logic of Remediation - Essay Sample

Introduction

The chapter explores the idea of using hypermediacy and immediacy to develop remediation within our culture, and perceive that our culture utilizes the media, and makes efforts to disregard the medium to leave us in the company of the thing offered, therefore exhibiting a "double logic." The authors capture the ideology of the wearer and provide the documented perceptions to them. People, therefore, have the desire to erase the media, while depending on it at the same time (Bolter & Richard 5). Remediation also captures a constant oscillation between hypermediacy and sheer immediacy, which is evident in the modern form of media, especially the new digital media (Bolter & Richard 19). In the new media, both aspects exhibit a long history which represents cultural logic and practice. The new digital media comprises the television, social media, films, and the use of computers.

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New media is referred to as "transparent immediacy" that perceives itself as immersive and "interfaceless." An example is VR. Hypermediacy, on the other hand, is juxtaposed and opaque. There is a repeated connection with the interface (Bolter & Richard 12). Both immediacy/transparency and hypermediacy/opacity try to get external representation into the real.

With time, transparent immediacy provides access to opaque hypermediacy. Through this, people discover mediums and realize that they are not transparent and immersive. There is also a parallax between the reality and the mediated starts which needs to be expanded and explored, especially initially by artists (Bolter & Richard 34). What is completely real and immersive becomes to be examined in the beauty of a specific media format.

There are questions on whether in the future; the need for immediacy will become so resilient that people will be living beyond the virtual reality all the time (Bolter & Richard 9). About the pace of media development and digital media to be specific, the world is rapidly changing, and technology is increasingly dominating the world. History suggests that people have always depended on various forms of media (Bolter & Richard 6). Examples of these different forms of media include art, books, films, and television among multiple others. The goal of entirely depending on such media forms is to escape reality. Recently, people spend much of their time being immersed and engaged in the media, especially in the virtual world such as watching television series, playing video games, among others (Bolter & Richard 11). There is an awareness that tools such as computers and mobile phones exhibit greater power and control over humans (Bolter & Richard 14) However, people fail to focus on the actual tools but concentrate on the content which the tool conveys. There is a need for humans to immerse in the virtual and fictitious world, and technology makes it easy.

Similarly, every new media is a significant form of remediation. Such media does not depend on the personal qualities, year of creation, the channel through which it was released, and the audience/ genre reaches. New media becomes a representation of the medium in another, where there is numerical presentation through data and programming, automation through media production process; variability through different media interfaces; modularity through recombining and separating media; and transcoding through format media translation.

Definitions of New Media

There are various categories which are common in discussing the topic of "new media" and these include websites, the internet, computer games, virtual reality, computer multimedia, DVD and CD-ROMs. There are also television programs which are shot using digital video and edited on computer workstations, digital compositing, 3-D animation, text and image compositions which are created on computers and printed on papers among various others.

Manovich (4) tend to equate the media to the computer and erases the characteristics of existing old and new media. Concerning this, elements such as information and data, processes such as digitalization, interactivity, and convergence are the key focus of the concept of "new media."

Manovich (68) relates technology and media and says that the definition of new media must embrace the utilization of websites, the internet, computer games, DVD, CD-ROMS, DVDs, virtual reality and computer multimedia. He, therefore, attempts to shy away from the nonlinear logic through precisely substituting the "new media" by the computer. He, therefore, fails to distinguish the diverse historical media since according to him, all media is new media. The assertion raises questions on the specifications of new media. For instance, analog music production differs from the networked and digital counterpart.

Manovich thinks that "computerization" of culture is limiting, and there is no need to give many privileges the computer as a tool which is essential for exhibiting and distributing media through media storage service and media production. Manovich believes that all media possess the same potential to exhibit modification, transformation, and altercation through current cultural languages. The diverse media channels exhibit the same potential to perceive culture in its current state.

Manovich (27) also provides five principles which are essential bounds for the new media. These include numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and transcoding.

Hansen, on the other hand, defines new media through picturing digital art with regard to aspects which are beyond the merely visual. According to him, a digital image comprises the entire procedures through which information is perceived. Hansen believes that new media depends on affection and memory which provides impure views or ideologies, a fact which is directly different from Manovich who sees in terms of "computerization. Manovich therefor focuses much on the media aspect while Hansen looks at the affection and the emotional aspect of new media.

Work Cited

Bolter, Jay David, Richard Grusin, and Richard A. Grusin. Remediation: Understanding new media. mit Press, 2000.