The Language of New Media by Lev Manovich

The Language of New Media by Lev Manovich

In this book Lev Manovich offers the first systematic and rigorous theory of new media. He places new media within the histories of visual and media cultures of the last few centuries. He discusses new media's reliance on conventions of old media, such as the rectangular frame and mobile camera, and shows how new media works create the illusion of reality, address the viewer, and represent space. He also analyzes categories and forms unique to new media, such as interface and database.

Manovich uses concepts from film theory, art history, literary theory, and computer science and also develops new theoretical constructs, such as cultural interface, spatial montage, and cinegratography. The theory and history of cinema play a particularly important role in the book. Among other topics, Manovich discusses parallels between the histories of cinema and of new media, digital cinema, screen and montage in cinema and in new media, and historical ties between avant-garde film and new media.

Lev Manovich is a professor in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego, and the Director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology's Software Studies Initiative. Software Takes Charge (2008), Black Box - White Cube (2005), and The Language of New Media (2001) are among his works. Lev Manovich is the author of Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database (MIT Press, 2005) and The Language of New Media (MIT Press, 2001), which has been called the most intriguing and wide-ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan. Manovich is a Visiting Professor at European Graduate School and a Professor at CUNY Graduate Center. He is also the Director of the Software Studies Initiative at California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.