Database as a Symbolic Form - Lev Manovich

DATABASE AS A SYMBOLIC FORM - LEV MANOVICH
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

They are collections of individual items, where every item has the same significance as any other

Narrative

Database is defined as a structured collection of data

Linear perspective as a ‘symbolic form’ of the modern age, we may even call database a new symbolic form of a computer age

The world appears to us as endless and unstructured collection of images, texts, and other data records, it is only appropriate that we will be moved to model it as a database. But it is also appropriate that we would want to develop poetics, aesthetics, and ethics of this database.

Multimedia works which have “cultural” content appear to particularly favor the database form. CD-ROMs which rake the user on a ‘tour’ through a museum collection.

This ‘narrative’ method of access does not have any special status in comparison to other access methods offered by a CD-ROM.

Another example of a database form is a multimedia genre which does not has an equivalent in traditional media-CD-ROMs devoted to single cultural figure such as a famous architect, film director or writer.

Thus the traditional broadcasting experience, which consisted solely of a real-time transmission, becomes just one element in a collection of options.

The web offered fertile ground to already existing database genre

Also inspired the creation of new ones such as the sites devoted to a person or a phenomenon

The open nature of the web as medium

Websites never have to be complete

Anti-narrative logic of the web. If new elements are being added over time, the result is a collection, not a story

Thus, in contrast to the cd=rom and web databases, which always appear arbitrary since the user knows that additional material could have been added without in any way modifying the logic of the database, in a game, from a users point of view, all the elements are motivated ( their presence is justified)

While computer games do not follow database logic, they appear to be ruled by another logic, that of an algorithm. They demand that a player execute an algorithm to win.

She learns its hidden logic, in short its algorithm. Therefore, in games where the game play departs from following an algorithm. Therefore, in games where the game play departs from following an algorithm, he player is still engaged with an algorithm, albeit in another way: she is discovering the algorithm of the game itself

The user (viewing the outcomes and inputting decisions) and the computer (calculating outcomes and displaying them back to the user). The user is trying to build a mental model of the computer model.

The world is reduced to two kinds of software objects which are complementary to each other: data structures and algorithms

Symbiotic relationship. The more complex the data structure of a computer program, the simpler the algorithm needs to be, and vice versa.

Appear at first sight that data is passive and algorithm Is active

A program reads in data, executes and algorithm, and writes out new data

Data processing

Data does not just exist – it has to be generated

Reality-media-data-database

But now the map has become larger than the territory

Database represents the world as a list of items and it refuses to order this list

Database and narrative are natural enemies. Competing for the same territory of human culture, each claims an exclusive right the make meaning out of the world

Other new media objects which are organized as databases correspond to the data structure while narratives, including computer games, correspond to the algorithms

The interface provides the access to the underlying database

If a database is too large to display all of its records at once, a search engine can be provided to allow the user to search for particular records. But the interface can also translate the underlying database into a very different user experience

The level of an interface did not exist. With a new media the content of the work and the interface become separate.

The new media object consists of one or more interfaces to a database of multimedia material. If only one interface is constructed, the result will be similar to a traditional art object; but this is an expectation rather than the norm

The user of a narrative traversing a database, following links between its records as established by the databases creator.

Interactive narrative = hyper narrative

To qualify as a narrative, a cultural has to satisfy a number of criteria: it should contain both an actor and a narrator; it also should contain three distinct levels consisting of the text, the story, and the fabula; and its contents should be a series of connected events caused or experienced by actors

The word narrative is often used as all inclusive term

It is usually paired with another overused word- interactive

A number of database records linked together so that more than one trajectory is possible, is assumed to be constitute ‘interactive narrative’

The author also has to control the semantics of the elements and the logic of their connection so that the resulting object will meet the criteria of narrative as outlined above

If the user simply accesses different elements, one after another, in a usually random order, there is no reason to assume that these elements will form a narrative at all

(page 6) to be continued