Soft Cinema:
Navigating the Database
by Lev Manovich and Andreas Kratky
The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005
DVD-video with 40-page color booklet.
$30.00
ISBN 0-262-13456-X
Reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg
andrea.dahlberg@bakernet.com
The Language of New Media (MIT
Press 2001) by Lev Manovich identified
the formal, visual properties of certain
types of new media. Manovich defined the
visual culture of the computer age as
cinematographic and traced its origins
from the avant-garde of the 1920s to the
computer games of today. The language
of digital visual culture is, he argued,
created from five principles that define
the rupture between analogue and digital
imagery. These are:
- "Numerical
representation"which
allows new media objects to be manipulated
by algorithms
- "Modularity"which
allows new media elements to retain
their discrete identity when combined
into larger units
- "Automation"which
results from the characteristics above
and allows change and creativity to
occur without human agency or intention
- "Variability"which
holds that new media objects are potentially
infinitely capable of new arrangement
- "Transcoding"which
is the translation of something into
another format and, in particular, the
translation into computer files. (27-48)
Much of the authority and force of Manovich's
argument lay in the fact that he was not
only a theorist but an artist speaking
with this new language. It will come as
no surprise then to learn that Soft
Cinema embodies and exemplifies each
of the characteristics above. In The
Language of New Media Manovich argued
that the database is to the computer age
what narrative was to the age of film;
in Soft Cinema Manovich and Kratky
show us what this means. (Manovich's critics
will, no doubt, conclude from this that
The Language of New Media was less
a theoretical analysis of new media and
more an extended artist's statement.)
Soft Cinema is a DVD containing
three works that were originally shown
as installations. Each work comprises
visual and acoustic databases that generate
a short film. The visual database contains
not only video clips but graphics, still
images, animation, and text. The auditory
database consists of music clips, voices,
and various background noises. Software
combines (samples) the visual and acoustic
elements in ever-changing combinations
so each showing of a film is different.
The films themselves belong to different
genres, such as film noir and science
fiction. The DVD captures various versions
of the stories that were generated by
each of the installations.
Each film is shown on a fragmented screen
where different windows present different
elements of an unfolding story. In "Mission
to Earth" the main window either depicts
what the main character perceives or shows
the character herself. Other, smaller
windows show other aspects of her world.
This film contains the strongest narrative
and is about an alien sent on an ethnographic
mission to Earth to report on its inhabitants.
It conjures up states of mind associated
with alienation, displacement, and migration.
"Absences" is the most abstract film.
Shot in black and white, the logic of
this film is one of association, and it
unfolds (differently each time) like a
poem. It links elements of the natural
and urban landscapes through their formal
properties: Shape, texture, size, shade,
etc.
Although the title of the film "Texas"
suggests that it is about a specific place,
it is actually about the modern city.
Texas is a state of mind and a way of
living rather than a specific geographical
place.
The idea of place is explored and redefined
in each film. The link between identity
and place is dissolved. Instead, place
becomes a mental construct comprised of
links and associations that transcend
time and space. Concepts of "home, "unity,"
and "belonging" are absent, but the films
are redolent with their absence. The world
is a larger, more disconnected place where
subjectivity is the search for connection
and meaning resides in its momentary realisation.
The films are fascinating to watch numerous
times and engage the spectator on every
level: intellectual, emotional, visual,
auditory, etc. They raise important questions
about life today and the construction
of subjectivity, meaning and identity.
No doubt much attention will be directed
to the nature of their making and their
formal properties (amply explained in
the additional materials accompanying
the DVD), but it is their content that
is most valuable and engaging. This DVD
will bring Manovich's artistic work to
a wider audience.