New Media is a term that I have been running across quite frequently as of late. This may or may not have to do with the fact that I am enrolled in a Digital Processes course, of which this blog is a fraction. Actually, this has everything to do with it. I don't believe I had really encountered the term before this term (these are two separate meanings of the term "term"). Anyway, the point is that this term is really quite ambiguous.
Reading Lev Manovich's article deliberating possible meanings for the word, shed some light on what the term might mean, but it also shed some light on the fact that nobody really seems to know what it means. Regardless, we have entered into a new realm of media where sharing can be instantaneous, interactivity is increasingly becoming a given, and interconnectivity is at an all time high. This interconnectivity is described with the word "Rhizome" in Deleuze and Guiattari's article, "From A Thousand Plateaus." Rhizome refers to points of data that are interconnected in a non-linear fashion. It is an array in which all points are connected to all other points, and there are no edges, only a center.
In reading this article, it almost felt as if I was reading some ancient spiritual text. The concept of rhizome kind of reminded me of the Buddhist concept of Indra's net in which all points of existence are reflections of all other points. The idea that everything exists as a relation to something else, rather than by virtue of its own being is a concept that I did not expect to be applied to the area of new media and technology, but when it is, it makes perfect sense. The web of connections being created every second has no beginning and no end. Each point reaches out to all other points in the most obscure ways. It is all very exciting!
It was very nice for me to read these articles, as the idea of this expanding interconnectivity, or at least our expanding awareness of it, is one of the more positive things that I see modern technology bringing to the table. As technology and communications expand, I sometimes imagine that humanity will have no choice but to acknowledge its unity in a way that it never has before.
I really like how you brought up the analogy of "Indra's Net" in explaining the concept of "Rhizome." I was having hard time gripping the concept of Rhizome and visualizing the overarching message, but by simply thinking that everything exists in relations to everything else like Rhizome, just as how you put it, I think I now understand the basic idea of what they were trying to say.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Maki. You gave a very concise answer as to what a "rhizome" actually is, and I know there were more qualifiers in the article, but you grasped the basic concept well. Do you think this interconnectivity or globalization is a good thing? I sometimes wonder if by becoming more and more interconnected, the world will begin to assimilate and cultures and languages will be lost.
ReplyDeleteGood connection between Eastern thought and new media interconnectedness. Big changes in store for a culture that believes in the master narrative of progress moving straight ahead?
ReplyDelete