SYNOPSIS - texts

"The work of art in the age of digital recombination" - Jos de Mul

In this paper, Jos de Mul discusses the significance of the development and growth of computer media in aesthetic experience. Using Walter Benjamin's "The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction" as a point of departure, de Mul describes the transformation of the cult value of art work which is located in the aura, or the specificity and singularity of a work of art in a particular time and place, and which interfaces between the materiality of a work and its meaning. With the mechanical reproduction of art works (and works of art specifically created for reproduction), this cult value gives rise to exhibition value that is located in the possibility of endless reproduction, and which has implications of democratic and revolutionary potential. De Mul delineates the fundamental shared characteristics in ‘new media art’ which are the four basic operations of persistent storage: Add, Browse, Change, and Destroy. These elements make up what de Mul names a "database ontology". These databases, by virtue of their dynamism, multi-dimensionality, and flexibility, function as both material metaphors (as instruments in various industries) and as conceptual metaphors through the creation of surplus meaning. Through their virtuality, and their manipulation value, new media art engenders the return of the aura. They also blur the already complicated relationship between the art and non-art functions of representations and recombinations. Subsequently, these digitally recombined works challenge viewers by emphasizing the medium itself and thus foreground the politics of representation and manipulation.

"Remixing and Remixability" - Lev Manovich

In “Remixing and Remixability,” Lev Manovich discusses the “remixability” offered by the dramatic increase in the quantity of information offered by the Internet and accessibility of content and the “modularization” of culture. Manovich posits that “remixability” of all scales and in different mediums is part of the same continuum and practice of remixability. This remixability is heightened and benefits from modularity. Manovich describes a hypothetical, future cultural ecology in which the samples that are remixed into cultural works and the works themselves are blurred. These works possibly could be built from modularity that does not have a predefined vocabulary or system, or a modularity that can automatically self-generate or change. This “post-computer” modularity can give rise to infinite diversity. Manovich further explores the possibilities in remixability through a futuristic methodological approach to contemporary cultural analysis. In his view, cultural content can be infinitely broken down, packaged, remixed, and moved very easily via the Internet. This mobile, diverse remixing already occurs in open-source platforms as Creative Commons. However, Manovich states that the modularity and remixing of media has already been taking place in society, from its origins in the standardization of parts and assembly lines in modern mass production to contemporary globalization and outsourcing, leading to greater connectivity. However, cultural modularity operates under a different logic than industrial modularity, since modularity in culture comes from outside sources rather from within production. Manovich cites musician sampling, the production of fan “slash films,” and art production that resamples and remixes mass cultural products.