Course MCM 0230: Digital Media

Lev Manovich’s “Navigable Space” provides interesting insight to the way we interact with new media on a virtually spatial level. The most interesting part of his argument comes through his analysis of space as a cultural concept. Discussions of art history and comparative historical spatial perspectives in aesthetics demonstrate that the way we conceive of and use virtual space probably has cultural connotations and implications. His discussion of space through the lens of the narrative also works to provide a cultural insight to virtual space. Manovich’s discussion of the American narrative at navigable through physical space and nature versus the European narrative as navigable through physical and psychological interaction with others demonstrates reasoning behind why virtual space in video games, for example, are so representative of the physically “navigable” quality of the American narrative. I especially liked how Manovich discusses the separation between things and space as “haptic” and does a good job of explaining why computer space is haptic and aggregate. It makes me think of the notion of websites as “sites”; separate locations. However I can also see how space on the web can be considered as infinite and therefore cannot be isolated from the things it contains or provides (e.g. websites). Regardless, it is the cultural analysis of navigation that allows Manovich’s text on computer space to truly make its mark in new media studies.