<nettime> New Media Defined

["Sverko, Adriano" <adriano.sverko@scala.net>]

I agree with most comments on New Media not being such a good term and yata
yata. But I do want to point out a few vital characteristics that are
implicit in this term, or at least were implicit in the 90s:

1.	business. Old media to new media is a bit like what we see in the
pharmaceuticals today. Novartis is to Syngenta as FT Times is to FT Times
Online. Products can be put into discrete divisions, and then, when market
conditions are ripe, a new company can form with huge market capitalization.
In the event of failure, you protect the proven technologies, the proven
business models of that company, and their historically earned "good will".

2.	non-linearity as a form of inclusion. The excitement, at least for
me, was that knowledge could become less canonized. This means that a
new-media work of art, if it were non-linear, would contain hypertext. With
it, I could educate, progagandize, market and communicate with one primary
audience in mind (say, a middle class consumer or someone with a graduate
degree), but it does not necessarily mean I would alienate people outside
target audience. People outside the target could click on unknown terms and
pick up knowledge in areas that I might be assuming they have a background
in. For example, in this paragraph, I could use an afterthought. I would
like to point out that my use of the word "propaganda" is more convenient
for non-native English speakers. But I also know that when an American hears
it, s/he is thinking more of manipulation in a political sense, and maybe is
thining about communism, in particular, because the US government does not
involve itself in propaganda campaigns <eg>.

3.	non-linearity as a form of post modernism. Aaah yes. This aspect is
always fun, and unfortunately necessary when the zeitgeist does not have
government sponsored entertainment or educational budgets. Who, in their
right mind, will buy a documentary on womens rights? Not many people. But,
lets take a painting of a traditional medieval ball, attended by
aristocrats. Notice the women with these great corsets and boobs melting out
of their dresses? With new media, an artist can scan that into a digital
software program, shrink it, put it into a wooden frame, and have a man load
it out of a truck and into a gallery building in midtown manhattan. And
maybe, to critique the dominant paradigm, she can drop his trousers while he
is doing so.
XXXX exposed XXXX !!

I think I could come up with a few more, but this is my first post here, so
I am hoping I am not offending anyone. Also, I think that the full potential
of multimedia, new media, "agents", virtual identities and hypertext have
not yet been fully harnessed by society, as tools for political leverage.
First, we need to get rid of spamming.

Adriano Sverko


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