A précis of "The Logic of Selection" in "The Language of New Media" by Lev Manovich

from "The Logic of Selection" [pp. 123-135]

Topic
New media objects, documents, and web pages are almost always created by selecting from menus, libraries, plug-ins, and other pre-existing media elements. Authentic creation of a new media object is rarely, if ever, performed.

Thesis and argument
While these attributes of generating new media objects provide a higher level of efficiency and give end-users some creative license to make choices, this model of authorship is not mutually exclusive to new media. A historical perspective of artistic creation, cultural changes, and the dynamic influence of electronic and digital media properties help us to understand how we have developed this logic of selection.

Read the rest of this post »