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Social Impact of Manovich's Principle of
Transcoding on Online Communities |
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In
his "Principles of New Media," Lev Manovich predicts, "as
computerization affects deeper and deeper layers of culture, these tendencies
will increasingly manifest themselves" (27). The tendencies he refers to are the onset of new paradigms
in the very organization of the human mind, brought about by the
progressively more crucial use of digital information in modern day life.
According to Manovich, new media "can be thought of as consisting of two
distinct layers – the 'cultural layer' and the 'computer layer'"
(46). For people in their late
teens, the social layer of lifestyle has become intertwined with
computerization, and there is no better example of this phenomena than the
vast assortment of blogs, or web logs, and "online communities,"
both of which allow users access to a gigantic database of personal
information. Though their
interfaces do operate within rather limited boundaries, the spirit of
Manovich's "new media" is readily apparent in every bit of data
contained in these websites. But
in considering the interaction between these two layers, which side is
gravitating towards the other?
Or, are both layers working together to bring human beings towards
some ultimate information destination?
While the answer is hardly obvious, it appears that while culture is
being bent in a more computer-savvy direction, the essentially instantaneous
and infinite access to information that modern humans have progresses a more
world-oriented view. This potentially suggests the cultivation of a
"world community," where national, regional, ethnic, sexual,
racial, and gendered boundaries no longer prohibit the exchange of ideas
– but if this information utopia connotes the gradual sacrifice of
individuality remains unclear. The World Community The online community Myspace.com, a database in which
users maintain a personal profile that can be viewed by the other 14.5
million members (Myspace 2005), is for social interaction what the
interchangeable part was for the factory. The variability of the interchangeable part allowed
manufactured devices to be taken apart, reassembled or repaired with new,
identical parts, and would be fully functional (if not better than before). In a similar way the online community
databases are comprised of individual profiles, or "parts," that
can be reworked independently but are always connected to a central node. Hence, the final "product,"
i.e. the sum of its profiles, does not change in any nature except
scale. Granting users the
ability to create, update, modify, and delete their profiles on a whim allows
a remarkably flexible collection of information. Manovich's principle of variability, that "a new
media object is not something fixed once and for all, but something that can
exist in different, potentially infinite version," is well reflected in
this sense (36). At any given
moment, a user can completely overhaul whatever depiction of themselves they
see fit, meaning that identities can become even more fluid than they are in
real life. On many websites,
such as thefacebook.com, users can regulate the flow of their information to
other users based on friendship status or membership in certain groups. Thus, what passes for one's identity
on such a website one day can become completely false the next. Consequently,
the way users discern substantial information from erratic statements becomes
both more computerized in the sense that the user is forced to be constantly
aware of this fluidity, but also more intuitively human in that the users'
understandings of each other become as dynamic as their profile-depicted
identities. The principle of
transcoding, the ultimate culmination of what Manovich believes new media is
leading culture towards, can explain this dichotomy of digital skepticism
(see Figures 1a and 1b) with more intimate perceptions humans have for each
other. Essentially, Manovich's
idea of transcoding suggests that new media reforms culture to make it
organized in a more computer-like way, a "blend of human and computer
meanings, of traditional ways in which human culture modeled the world and
the computer's own means of representing it" (46). Perhaps this is what makes
media "new," that the way we think may parallel the growth of newer
and newer technologies. Transcoding and a Lifting of Barriers As Manovich puts it, "to 'transcode' something is to
translate it into another format.
The computerization of culture gradually accomplishes similar
transcoding in relation to all cultural categories and concepts"
(47). However, Manovich does not
explore the notion that people at the same time can be drawn closer together
by this new thought pattern towards increasingly accepting perspectives
– or even that the so-called computerization of culture is actually the
catalyst in leading humans towards where they were always meant to go in
communication: A universal,
virtually instant, and comprehensive exchange of ideas. Watching the way Myspace and Facebook
have grown exponentially in complexity, popularity, availability, and
normality does imply a strange kind of virtual evolution for humans. The organizing identities in digital
databases that are accessible and dynamic works to fill the gaps (differing
perspectives, language barriers, even the simple fact that humans cannot read
each other's minds) in the exchange of human information. In other words,
becoming so familiar with other human beings in this way could theoretically
be lifting a collective cultural block that has existed because humans were
simply too primitive before new media.
This is not to say that Manovich did not formulate the concept of
transcoding to be inflexible, but to imply that the digital age changes us
without touching upon the possibility of a massive cultural awakening or
revelation limits the power that this principle can hold. Identity Surrender Unfortunately, people allowing themselves to become
integrated with these online communities acknowledge an underlying, dark
simplicity to human identity.
Though few would argue that one could fit all the relevant information
about a person on a series of webpages, what passes for a healthy profile of
identity can be seen as tremendously bare. Myspace does not appear to place a limit on how much
information a user can input about themselves, but there is of course a
degree at which a profile becomes too comprehensive (or self-indulgent, as
the case may be) and interest will fall off rapidly. Most profiles share a similar pattern
of information organization and similar amounts of information. What transcoding really could mean is
"identity surrender" (see Figure 2). Users may feel compelled to conform to standard topics of
discussion or, in their blogs, to report on specific types of information. While profiles have the potential to
be outlets of independent expression, the obvious "hot" topics tend
to dominate user identities. Sociologist Georg Simmel wrote, "The deepest problems of modern life
derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and
individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of
historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life"
(409). Though this was meant to
explain alienation during the Industrial Revolution, the analogy is not
difficult to fit into the context of transcoding. While humans have found it increasingly important to be
individual, and websites like Myspace and thefacebook were created for that
very purpose, the result seems to be strangely opposite. Is it really possible transcoding
causes identity surrender? This
question branches out to two possibilities: The computerization of culture
results in better communication to the extent that all people adopt
progressively similar dispositions. Or, on the other hand, society is
learning to depict itself most effectively within the parameters of the
computer - creating a mass self-advertising culture that uses similar tactics
and devices. In either event,
one cannot deny that some form of transcoding has taken place. When scouring the seemingly endless
gauntlet of user profiles in online communities, one will inevitably be
overcome with a sense of dŽjˆ vu.
Faces will blend together.
Catch phrases and chain emails will rear their heads over and
over. Eventually, it appears
that all the characteristics that people lay out on their profiles are just
variables that fill empty slots, and when one clicks on an interest
("movies," for example) the website will list all the other
profiles that share the interest.
It would seem that all personal data is communicated in binary, on or
off, yes or no. The scary thing
is, this isn't some fate looming over the horizon. The transcoding takes place whenever any information
becomes digitized. Identities,
and the people they belong to, have been making the pilgrimage to the digital
age for years now. However, it
may take decades to really understand if our identities have become more
human – or more computer. |
Lev Manovich, father of New Media, taken shortly after the
birth of New Media. Mother not
present.
Fig 1 a.
Photograph of Bill Evans, famous jazz musician.
Fig 1 b. What
Bill Evans' myspace picture would likely be if he were still alive,
illustrating the necessity for "digital skepticism."
Fig 2. A
flattening of individuality through an online database. |
