Lev Manovich - Database as Symbolic Form

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A Database Complex

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Manovich says that the form of the database is not always intrinsic to modern storage media. He calls cinema the prime exception, because here the storage media supports the narrative imagination. He quotes Christian Metz who sees all films as belonging to the same genre, , as he calls it, 'super-genre', because they all share the same characteristic of being narrative. The use of narrative can, in this case, be understood either very practical as in 'telling a story' or rather abstract, as an automatic process creating an imaginary narrative that the viewer is drawn to by being presented sequences of images.