Operations / Selection:
Lev Manovich's The
Language of New Media is full of theories regarding media
technology and generational differences between 'new' and 'old'
media types. In his book, he discusses the Operations of new media,
that is, the layer of technology that runs on top of the interface.
Selection is one of the subjects of the Operations section and
its primary focus is on the act of selecting as a means of developing
new media presentations more efficiently and the use of pre-existing
elements when creating this new media presentation.
As I stated in the Form
Criteria section, Rashomon Café was developed with
Macromedia's Flash
application. The art of producing a Flash movie is an excellent
example of Manovich's theory. The user of this application is
able to create 'Symbols' which are created once and then can be
used repeatedly without the additional need for more bandwidth.
These Symbols can be an image, audio clip, text, or imported movies
(.mpeg and QuickTime files). When the movie is under development,
the author selects these Symbols from a 'Library' then places
them on a timeline. The timeline consists of different layers
that allow the Symbols to run in different directional paths;
independent of other Symbols on other paths.
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In Rashomon Café it appears
that images and sounds were taken from photographs and recording
devices (respectively) and imported into Flash where they were
put together on a timeline, thus producing a movie. According
to Manovich, only the story, or Plot, of Rashomon Café
is original. Manovich also uses the example of a DJ who spins
records to produce art. This example can work well with Flash
sites like Rashomon Café. The photographs and sounds are
combined to make something semi-original.
Although Manovich's theory of Selection
does, to some extent, describe the production process of a Flash
movie, or web site, it doesn't take into account that many people
develop completely original works of art without borrowing any
thing from external sources. It is completely possible that Tatu
Design developed every aspect of their site without borrowing.
It really depends on the budget of the project and the purpose
of the final presentation. If Tatu is a large firm, they may have
the money to spend on stock photographs and audio clips. If Tatu
is a smaller company they could've taken the pictures and recorded
the small amount of audio used in Rashomon Café without
'taking' anything from an external source, thus producing something
completely original.
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