Read Manovich’s chapter. After careful reading answer the following questions. Bring your answers
to class and submit them in PeerGrade prior to class.
Question 1: With reference to Manovich’s text explain what are the differences between computer
multimedia and media hybridity? [max 250 words]
Even though there are some applications from the 90s that could qualify both as multimedia
and media hybrids, most can not. The main difference begins with layout. In multimedia
documents, multiple media appear next to each other, e.g. “In a web page, images and
video appear next to text; a blog post may similarly show text, followed by images and more
text; a 3D world may contain a flat screen object used to display video. Alternatively, each
element of a multimedia message opens in its own viewer (this was the case for MMS
implementations in the phones of the 2000s).” In case of hybrids, various types of media
and techniques are brought together creating new ‘media gestalts’. They are merged thus
forming a new coherent experience. Manovich also uses a metaphor of sexual reproduction.
He explains that the hybrid would have both of their parents DNR and merge it, therefore
producing a new media offspring, instead of, in the case of multimedia, just mechanically
assembling parent’s physical parts.1
Question 2: On page 204 Manovich provides a series of concrete examples of media hybrids. Think
of another concrete example of a media hybrid. Describe your example and argue why and in what
way this is a media hybrid. [max 250 words]
Pokemon Go was a game launched in 2016. It combined augmented reality, virtual world,
different characters, space and physical navigation. The game also used the phone’s camera,
only to incorporate a virtual character – pokemon, into a real world view. To move in the
game, explore and find pokemons, players had to physically walk around with a map in their
hands and search for the virtual elements. Pokemon Go map also showed different activities
happening, such as tournaments or challenges, where all players could participate and
compete against each other. This produced a media hybrid, combining all kinds of different
media and using those elements to create a unique new world. All the elements were
merged together creating a completely new coherent experience of a virtual world.
1
Manovich, Lev. Software Takes Command, Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uunl/detail.action?docID=1224268. 67.
to class and submit them in PeerGrade prior to class.
Question 1: With reference to Manovich’s text explain what are the differences between computer
multimedia and media hybridity? [max 250 words]
Even though there are some applications from the 90s that could qualify both as multimedia
and media hybrids, most can not. The main difference begins with layout. In multimedia
documents, multiple media appear next to each other, e.g. “In a web page, images and
video appear next to text; a blog post may similarly show text, followed by images and more
text; a 3D world may contain a flat screen object used to display video. Alternatively, each
element of a multimedia message opens in its own viewer (this was the case for MMS
implementations in the phones of the 2000s).” In case of hybrids, various types of media
and techniques are brought together creating new ‘media gestalts’. They are merged thus
forming a new coherent experience. Manovich also uses a metaphor of sexual reproduction.
He explains that the hybrid would have both of their parents DNR and merge it, therefore
producing a new media offspring, instead of, in the case of multimedia, just mechanically
assembling parent’s physical parts.1
Question 2: On page 204 Manovich provides a series of concrete examples of media hybrids. Think
of another concrete example of a media hybrid. Describe your example and argue why and in what
way this is a media hybrid. [max 250 words]
Pokemon Go was a game launched in 2016. It combined augmented reality, virtual world,
different characters, space and physical navigation. The game also used the phone’s camera,
only to incorporate a virtual character – pokemon, into a real world view. To move in the
game, explore and find pokemons, players had to physically walk around with a map in their
hands and search for the virtual elements. Pokemon Go map also showed different activities
happening, such as tournaments or challenges, where all players could participate and
compete against each other. This produced a media hybrid, combining all kinds of different
media and using those elements to create a unique new world. All the elements were
merged together creating a completely new coherent experience of a virtual world.
1
Manovich, Lev. Software Takes Command, Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uunl/detail.action?docID=1224268. 67.
