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Remediation


ARIN
6903
Computers
as
Culture
:
Seminar
Presentation
:
Andra
Keay


Bolter
&
Grusin
(1999)
“…
we
call
the
representation
of
one
medium
in
another

remediation,
and
we
will
argue
that
remediation
is
a
defining
characteristic
of

the
new
digital
media.”


Media

In
the
arts,
media
(the
plural
of
medium)
describes
the
material
and
techniques

used
by
an
artist
to
produce
work.
In
cultural
theory,
media
is
the
means
of

communicating
information.
McLuhan
stretched
the
concept
of
media
to
include

all
technology;
books,
clothes,
roads,
cars,
they
all
mediate
our
existence.


Mediation/Remediation

The
Talmud
says,
“We
see
the
world
not
as
it
is,
but
as
we
are.”
All
is
mediated…



Slide
2:
From
Sound
to
Word

to
Image

In
the
beginning
was
sound.
And
the
sound
became
word.
And
word
became

written.
As
we
progressed
from
symbolically
coding
sound
in
speech,
to
the

writing
of
our
symbols,
we
displaced
our
early
oral
culture
with
a
culture
of
copy

and
recording.




The
primacy
of
visual
representation
in
the
history
of
western
art
began
and

embodies
our
cultural
quest
to
hold
a
mirror
to
ourselves.


“Whence
did
the
wond’rous
mystic
art
arise,

Of
painting
SPEECH,
and
speaking
to
the
eyes?

That
we
by
tracing
magic
lines
are
taught,

How
to
embody,
and
to
colour
THOUGHT?”
William
Massey


Slide
3:
Perspective


The
renaissance
development
of
linear
perspective
is
inextricably
bound
up
in

Bolter
and
Grusin’s
double
logic
of
remediation,
immediacy
and
hypermediacy.



Perspective
literally
means
“seeing
through”.
Albrecht
Durer.



Andre
Bazin
calls
perspective
the
first
mechanical
reproduction,
giving
the
artist

the
means
to
create
an
illusionary
3
dimensional
reality.
Alan
Turing,
remediated

this
meme
when
he
christened
the
computer
‘a
simulation
machine’.


Slide
4:
Windows

In
1455,
Alberti
wrote
‘On
Painting’….
“I
draw
a
rectangle
of
whatever
size
I

want,
which
I
regard
as
an
open
window
through
which
the
subject
to
be
painted

is
seen.”


Artists
of
the
Renaissance
created
a
more
real
representation
of
real.
Not
simply

a
more
successful
illusion,
but
by
mathematizing
space
and
measuring
the
world,

geometry
created
repeatable,
definite,
transferable
and
almost
tangible
realities.


This
picture
has
perspective,
there
is
a
vanishing
point.
There
are
also
remnants

of
a
more
symbolic
representation
as
the
people
are
represented
proportionally

to
their
importance
not
their
physical
distance.


Slide
5:
Erasure

To
further
the
immediacy
effect,
the
brush
stroke
and
other
signs
of
the
artist

must
be
concealed.
Bryson
argues
that
in
Western
art
tradition,
oil
paint
is

primarily
an
erasive
medium,
erasing
the
surface
of
the
picture
plane.


Slide
6:
Death

Photography
so
successfully
erased
the
artist
that
it
was
only
recently

considered
art.
Roland
Barthes
sees
the
photograph
as
a
death
more
than
an

erasure.
It
shows
what
was,
not
what
is
now
and
in
the
stillness
of
the
image,
the

captured
moment,
the
drying
of
light,
it
highlights
the
loss
of
the
actual.


This
hypermediated
reading,
was
overturned
by
the
moving
image.
Film
set
the

viewpoint
free.



Slide
7:
Movement

Although
in
reality
film
is
far
more
mediated
than
photography,
it
seems
more

transparently,
hypnotically
real.
Metz
believed
that
film
was
more
real
because

we
perceive
the
movement
of
film
in
the
same
way
as
we
perceive
‘real’

movement,
therefore
doing
away
with
a
level
of
mediation
or
difficulty,
softening

the
edge
or
rupture.


Our
normal
way
of
viewing
the
world
is
mimicked
and
we
enjoy
a
subjective

feeling
of
reality.


Slide
8:
Interaction

Film
is
multiple
directed
frames.
We
have
no
control.
Even
if
our
digital

computer
experiences
are
less
seamless
visually
than
the
filmic,
our
viewpoint

has
come
under
our
own
control
again.
Our
multiple
windows
are
participatory,

and
interactive
creating
a
more
immersive
illusion
of
immediacy.


Slide
9:
Multiplication

Immediacy
is
in
constant
oscillation
with
hypermediacy.
(stated
later
too)
Our

awareness
of
the
frame
around
our
windows
is
moved
aside
whenever
we

choose
to
immerse
ourselves
in
an
image.
The
ruptures
are
as
likely
to
be
links

and
connections.
And
within
our
multiple
windows
we
are
able
to
contain
all
of

our
old
media.
This
is
the
beautiful
promise
of
digital
culture.


Slide
10:
New
Media

New
media
encompasses
digital,
computerized
or
networked
information
and

communication.
There
is
an
implicit
dating.
New
is…
well,
relatively
recent.


Slide
11:
Old
Media

Film,
photography
and
before
that,
the
telegraph,
were
all
digital
media.
Small

bits
of
information
connected
into
a
linear
flow,
or
remediated
by
technology.

However,
they
are
no
longer
new
although
they
may
repurpose
and
refashion

new
media
to
the
point
almost
of
abandonment
or
absorption.


Slide
12:
Alan
Kay

Alan
Kay,
a
founder
of
Xerox
Palo
Alto
Research
Center
(PARC)
is
best
known
for

the
idea
of
personal
computing,
the
concept
of
the
intimate
laptop
computer,
and

the
inventions
of
the
now
ubiquitous
overlapping‐window
interface
and
modern

object‐oriented
programming.



Alan
Kay
in
1987
reintroduces
Ivan
Sutherland’s
Sketchpad,
which
was
the
first

graphical
interface
and
used
the
first
Window
and
arguably
the
first
use
of

cathode
ray
tube
display.
Around
this
time
in
the
early
1960s,
the
first

interactive
computer
game
‘Spacewar’
was
written
by
students
at
MIT.



(Dueling
players
fired
at
each
other´s
spaceships
and
used
early
versions
of

joysticks
to
manipulate
away
from
the
central
gravitational
force
of
a
sun
as
well

as
from
the
enemy
ship.)


And
if
you
watch
Engelbart’s
‘mother
of
all
computer
demos’
as
well,
you’ll
see

that
almost
every
feature
of
computing
was
developed
50
years
ago.
Graphical

interface,
the
use
of
icons,
keyboard
and
mouse
interface,
games,
laptops,
office

applications,
personal
computing,
the
internet,
hypertext,
email.


Slide
13:
History

So,
hypermediacy
has
been
around
for
a
long
time.
Nested
symbols,

interconnecting
spaces.
Multiplicity,
frames,
edges
and
awareness.



In
fact,
there
are
some
old
inventions
that
haven’t
really
been
incorporated
yet,

like
shifting
viewpoints
of
data
rather
than
linking
to
extra
or
other
material.


Slide
14:
Immediacy/Hypermediacy

We
continue
to
oscillate
between
these
states.
One
contains
and
conceals
all
it’s

workings
and
utilizes
technology
to
immerse
us
in
a
socially
constructed
reality.



The
other
glorifies
in
a
multiplicity
of
messages
and
diverse
connections

simulating
our
perceptional
reality,
“the
rich
sensorium
of
human
experience”.

B&G
p34


“The
appeal
to
authenticity
of
experience
is
what
brings
the
logics
of
immediacy

and
hypermediacy
together.”
B&G
p71


Slide
15:
Repurposing

Most
of
the
time
we
don’t
even
notice
repurposing
remediation.
The
online

gallery
allowing
us
to
view
photos
or
artworks.
The
DVD
shop.
They
offer
us
a

seamless
reissue
of
the
old.
All
have
repurposed
from
one
media
to
another.



Most
of
these
paintings
were
also
repurposed
from
stories,
myths
or
legends.

This
is
in
a
similar
fashion
to
the
series
of
adaptions
of
Jane
Austen
which
don’t

explicitly
refer
to
the
book
from
which
they
originated
but
nonetheless

reproduce
it
recognizably
in
another
form.
Knowledge
of
one
is
not
required
to

allow
knowledge
of
the
other.


Slide
16:
Refashioning

Refashioning
however
is
remaking
not
retelling.
It’s
the
overt
manipulation
of

other
media
and
requires
an
awareness
of
the
other
sources
of
the
media

involved.
An
appreciation
of
the
process
by
which
they
have
been
remediated
is

implicit
in
the
experience.
The
old
can
refashion
new
too.



Slide
17:
Absorbing

Finally
absorption
is
a
form
of
remediation.
The
old
media
no
longer
exist
on

their
own
but
exist
within
the
new.
This
slide
is
deliberately
ironic
(as
is
the
use

of
the
word
slide).
Newspapers
particularly
are
succumbing
to
the
digital

onslaught
and
perhaps
that
crossed
Pranav
Mistry’s
mind
when
he
picked
this

way
of
demonstrating
sixth
sense
computing.



The
video
and
the
film
have
been
absorbed,
as
have
the
vinyl
record,
the
cassette

and
perhaps
soon
the
CD,
for
general
purposes
although
there
are
still
specialist

features
in
each
of
those
medium…
except
perhaps
for
video
tape.


Slide
18:
Breaking
Through

Rheingold
(1991)
In
the
1990s,
VR
technology
is
taking
people
beyond
and

through
the
display
screen
into
virtual
worlds.”


VR
has
been
disappointing
in
terms
of
the
wire
or
headset
but
virtual
worlds

have
become
a
far
more
popular
medium
than
predicted.


I
have
remediated
the
work
of
our
Computers
As
Culture
lecturers
in
these
slides

btw.
This
is
from
the
2006
Second
Life
Symposium
on
the
Remediation
of
Art
in

the
New
Media
Consortium’s
Virtual
Campus.


Slide
19:
Moving
In

Jay
Bolter
said
in
a
2007
discussion
with
Lev
Manovich
that
if
he
rewrote

remediation,
he
would
reduce
their
focus
on
the
visual
interface
and
incorporate

more
about
the
influence
of
the
social
and
network
society.


Is
remediation
sufficient
to
reveal
the
interplay
with
older
forms
as
we
dance

around
the
edges
and
spaces
of
new
realities?


Slide
20:
Turing
ON

We’ve
broken
through,
moved
in
and
are
now
Turing
on.
Haptic
interfaces,
touch

devices,
ubiquity,
convergence
and
3
dimensional
computing,
The
simulation

machine
is
spreading
its
wings.


The
touch
screen
is
a
passing
phase.
3
dimensional
interactive
computing
cubes

and
wearable
computers
are
real
now.


Slide
21:


Siftables
are
real.
3
dimensional
interactive
computing
cubes.

See
David
Merrill’s
talk
at
TED
February
2009



Slide
22:


Reactable
interactive
musical
instrument
used
by
Bjork.

Sixth
Sense
is
wearable
interface
demoed
at
TED
from
MIT.



Slide
23:

I
don’t
know
about
Pranav
Mistry,
but
Alan
Kay
was
initially
a
musician
before

turning
to
computers,
as
was
Ray
Kurzweil,
as
are
the
Reactable
crew
and
David

Merrill
of
Siftables.


Perhaps
he’s
a
dancer
and
I
think
it’s
to
the
physical
and
musical
arts
that
we

have
now
turned
away
from
the
primacy
of
the
visual.


Slide
24:


The
keyboard
and
mouse
were
invented
over
50
years
ago.
I
believe
that
the

shift
in
the
last
decade
to
always
on
connectivity,
mobility
and
touch
interfaces

show
the
start
of
the
really
new
media.
The
singularity
is
nearer.
It’s
almost

within
touching
distance.


Slide
25:

Where
do
we
go
when
we’ve
moved
inside
the
machine?


Slide
26:

Remediation
is
a
valuable
way
to
examine
the
interplay
of
interfaces
in
our

mirrored
and
windowed
world,
but
I
think
that
Bolter
&
Grusin
could
extend

their
dialectic
into
the
3
dimensional
digital
space.
Immediacy
and
hypermediacy

have
also
the
dimension
of
altermediacy.



Our
links
to
previous
media
have
loosened
and
there
is
no
easy
way
to
put
the

genie
back
in
the
bottle.
This
century’s
digital
media
cannot
be
reverse

remediated
without
reference
to
multiple
media
and
the
ways
in
which
we
relate

to
it
have
multiplied
far
beyond
the
hyperspace.
In
this,
they
are
metamedia
as

Turing,
Kay
and
Manovich
proclaim.



The
ways
in
which
we
are
constrained
to
interact
or
operate
with
and
upon
the

media
become
the
most
important
feature
of
the
remediation.
The
reforming
of

reality.

Altermediacy.


This
is
the
logical
combination
of
Manovich
and
Kay’s
Metamedia
and
Bolter
&

Grusin’s
Remediation,
otherwise
we
risk
running
down
an
infinite
looping
path

or
remediation,
rupture
and
dissolution.


“The
goal
of
remediation
is
to
refashion
or
rehabilitate
other
media.

Furthermore,
because
all
mediations
are
both
real
AND
mediations
of
the
real,

remediation
can
also
be
understood
as
a
process
of
reforming
reality
as
well.”

B&Gp?



According
to
Baudrillard’s
The
Precession
of
Simulacra
“It
is
no
longer
a
question

of
imitation,
nor
duplication,
nor
even
parody.
It
is
a
question
of
substituting
the

signs
of
the
real
for
the
real.”


That
representation
now
precedes
and
determines
the
real.
This
is
McLuhan’s

message.
We
shaped
the
tools
first
but
are
now
being
shaped.
This
is
more
than

immediate,
more
than
hyper,
it
is
alter.


Slide
27:

We
are
Alice
through
the
looking
glass
and
this
new
world
may
turn
our

perceptions
internetside
out.


References
(brief)

Remediation:
Understanding
New
Media
–
Bolter
&
Grusovin

Many
Artworks
by
Madeline
Von
Foerster

Windows
and
Mirrors
–
Bolter
&
Gromola

Remediation
of
the
Artspace
in
Second
Life
–
LytheWitt
&
AnyaIxchel

Mirror
States
–
Kathy
Cleland
&
Lizzie
Muller

Computer
History
Museum,
TED
Talks
and
also….


Undertanding
Media
–
Marshall
McLuhan

The
Medium
is
the
Massage
–
Marshall
McLuhan

Writing
Space
–
Jay
Bolter

Online
Debate
on
Digital
Aesthetics
and
Communication
–
Bolter,
Manovich,

Jensen,
Fetveit,
Stald

Alan
Kay’s
Universal
Media
Machine
–
Lev
Manovich

What
is
Digital
Cinema
–
Lev
Manovich

What
is
Cinema
–
Andre
Bazin

Image
Music
Text
–
Roland
Barthes

Simulacra
and
Simulations
–
Jean
Baudrillard

Participation,
Remediation,
Bricolage
–
Mark
Deuze

Interface
as
Image
–
Ian
Gwill

Exploring
Visual
Culture
–
ed
Matthew
Rampley

Videos
of
talks
and
demos
by
Alan
Kay,
Doug
Engelbart,
Ivan
Sutherland,


Video/demos
Pranav
Mistry,
David
Merrill
and
Reactible.

Apologies
for
all
unmentioned
influences!


I
have
also
added
a
section
on
my
“Ideas
of
Altermediacy”
to
the
notes.


The
Idea
of
Altermediacy

Altermediacy
is
the
property
of
change
in
the
remediation
of
the
real.
Neither

real,
nor
the
illusion
of
real
nor
the
augmentation
of
real,
altermediacy
describes

the
state
or
rate
of
flux
between
our
remediated
reality,
our
immediacy
and

hypermediacy.


Altermediacy
in
Remediation

Altermediacy
can
reference
the
way
in
which
an
individual
is
finding
meaning
in

the
media
or
a
group
or
network
finding/making
meaning
in
the
media.



INDIVIDUAL
 Fast
contact
and
strong
 Technologically
limited,

feeling
of
conversation
 small
screens,
clumsy

possible
but
reply
can
be
 platforms,
many
steps.

lost
in
the
crowd
or
if
 However
links
to
extra

you’ve
switched
off.
 information/media
poss.

GROUP/SOCIAL
 Mobilizing
action
or
 Weakening
connections

sinking
into
 through
lack
of
depth

insignificance?
Few
 and
excess
multiplicity.

groups
gain
strength
and
 Move
of
advertizing
into

identity
from
process.
 space.



 IMMEDIACY
 HYPERMEDIACY


Using
twitter
as
an
example
of
mapping
altermediacy,
you
can
ascribe
a
value
to

the
way
in
which
twitter
as
a
whole
remediates
our
communications
and
also

use
one
value
to
contrast
with
another
value
by
way
of
social,
gender,
economic

status
etc.


Altermediacy
can
measure
both
the
state
AND
rate
of
change
and
is
in
play
when

there
is
oscillation
between
immediacy
and
hypermediacy.
However,
that
is

indicative
of
rate
of
altermediacy
only.
It
is
possible
for
there
to
be
no
significant

rate
or
oscillation
between
states
and
yet
for
a
state
to
be
highly
compelling,

delivering
a
message
of
force.


Altermediacy
and
Media
Ecology

Altermediacy
can
also
be
used
to
explain
the
‘direct’
relationship
beween
media

but
as
‘directly’
is
effectively
removing
the
mediating
or
remediating
subject,
the

relationship
beween
media
as
a
flow
is
more
rightly
media
ecology
or
network

society.


Altermediacy
,
the
Subjective
and
the
Social

Altermediacy
on
the
individual
level
is
highly
subjective
and
open
to

psychological,
literary
and
semiotic
analysis.


Altermediacy
on
the
social
level
is
highly
political
and
open
to
network,
cultural

and
sociological
analysis.


Altermediacy
is
always
open
to
an
aesthetic
or
philosophical
analysis.

Altermediacy
,
reflecting
recent
readings

Having
just
finished
the
moodled
reference;
“Video
Games:
Remediation
and

Synergy”
by
Geoff
King
and
Tanya
Krzywinska,
I
was
struck
by
the
use
of

hypermediacy
to
describe
a
‘heightened
or
hyper
reality’
with
a
greater
effect

than
media
with
immediacy.


While
this
is
a
logical
expansion
of
the
use
of
multiplicity
as
a
sign
of
hypermedia

and
a
great
appeal
of
hypermedia
is
the
utilization
of
the
multiple
perceptions
(&

workings)
available
to
us,
I
find
that
use
of
hypermediacy
consistent
with
Arthur

C.
Clark’s
quote
in
Bolter
&
Grusovin
(p
163)
that
“Virtual
Reality
won’t
merely

replace
TV,
it
will
eat
it
alive!”


However,
I
didn’t
think
that
Bolter
and
Grusovin
support
a
‘hyper’
as
‘greater’

meaning.
In
fact,
a
definition
of
hypermediacy
as
‘a
greater
illusion
of
reality
and

greater
presence’
is
contrary
to
B&G’s
definition
from
Remediation
(p41),
that

“In
all
its
various
forms,
the
logic
of
hypermedicay
expresses
the
tension

between
regarding
a
(visual)
space
as
mediated
and
as
a
‘real’
space
that
lies

beyond
mediation.”


Therefore,
hypermediacy
requires
the
acknowledgement
of
the
media.


Altermediacy
would
answer
the
need
to
describe
a
heightening
of
effect
(or

reduction)
as
a
way
of
describing
a
media
or
a
remediation.


Andra
Keay
August
2009


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