Key Elements of Digital Media

Question 1

technological building blocks of digital media

Answer 1

Technical processes

Question 2

the ways in which digital media objects are created, encountered and used

Answer 2

cultural forms

Question 3

environments that digital media can create

Answer 3

immersive experience

Question 4

produced, distributed and consumed through twoway networked infrastructures

Answer 4

networked

Question 5

responsiveness of a media object or piece of information to the preferences, needs or activities of the user.

Answer 5

Interactivity

Question 6

interactivity has been spoken about in three thematic ways:

Answer 6

1. interactivity can be seen as implicit in the technological structures of computer-mediated communications.
2. relates to the context in which communication of any sort occurs, and the results of that communication. (context)
3. perception of the user or the ‘state of mind’ of the audience in terms of taking a ‘passive’ or ‘active’ role in relation to the media

Question 7

an interlinked archive of human knowledge which would work by association in a manner similar to the understandings, at that time, of how the human mind operated

Answer 7

memex

Question 8

a form of text that is composed of nodes or blocks of text which form the content, the links between these blocks of content, and the buttons or tags that enact the link from one node to another

Answer 8

Hypertext

Question 9

Components of hypertext

3

Answer 9

1. nodes/blocks
2. links
3. buttons/tags

Question 10

In hypertext, as one follows the different links, paths are created within the ____

Answer 10

network of nodes

Question 11

hypertext by nature is a ________ form of text, and thereby begins to blur the distinction between ‘writer’ and ‘reader’

Answer 11

non-linear

Question 12

classic literature has two elements that inform an ideological position

Answer 12

Authorship, Linearity

Question 13

production of meaning resides within the author, and the reader is obliged to follow under convention

Answer 13

Authorship

Question 14

sequence of events is set up and determined by the author and presented as a material whole, which itself constitutes a beginning and an end

Answer 14

Linearity

Question 15

‘a structured collection of data’
‘a container of information’

Answer 15

database

Question 16

3 components of database system

Answer 16

1. storage element (hardware storage in the case of computers)
2. means to retrieve and filter data (software that can sort information on the basis of certain parameters)
3. means to turn that data into meaningful information (the user who creates meaning)

Question 17

feeling of awe or reverence created by being in the presence of unique or remarkable objects

Answer 17

aura

Question 18

viewpoints based on geometric perspective (distance)

Answer 18

Small optics

Question 19

ability to communicate in real time on a global scale

Answer 19

big optics

Question 20

property where digital media objects change over time

Answer 20

variability

Question 21

has narratives and authored works that tend to have a set composition or sequence of events (narrative)

Answer 21

Old media

Question 22

continually updated, reassembled and recreated, existing in potentially infinite versions

Answer 22

digital media

Question 23

a form of organisation that is not based on hierarchical structure, but on a kind of horizontal network of relations

Answer 23

rhizome

Question 24

six principles of rhizomes

Answer 24

1. the principle of connection
2. the principle of multiplicity
3. the principle of decalcomania
4. the principle of cartography
5. the principle of heterogeneity
6. the principle of asignifying rupture

Question 25

Identify the principle

‘The rhizome connects any point to any other point’. The connections are random in relation to each other and any point can be connected to any other

Answer 25

The Principle of Connection

Question 26

Identify the principle

‘The rhizome is reducible to neither the One nor the multiple’. In this respect it is neither a collection of individual things nor one large thing. Instead it is composed of dimensions and lines of connection. This also means that no point in the rhizome can be altered without altering the whole.

Answer 26

The Principle of Multiplicity

Question 27

Identify the principle

‘The rhizome operates by variation, expansion, conquest, capture, offshoots’. In that sense, it does not ‘reproduce’, it transforms both itself and what it encounters.

Answer 27

The Principle of Decalcomania

Question 28

Identify the Principle

‘The rhizome pertains to a map that must be produced, constructed, a map that is always detachable, connectable, reversible, modifiable, and has multiple entryways and exits and its own lines of flight’. So, in contrast to ‘tracings’, where one must follow a given path, a rhizome is akin to a map or a field in which one can enter at any point and must construct their own path through.

Answer 28

The Principle of Cartography

Question 29

Identify the principle

‘The rhizome is an acentered, nonhierarchical, nonsignifying system without a General and without an organizing memory or central automation’. This suggests that rhizomes have nothing akin to a ‘centre’, which is more important than other parts of the system.

Answer 29

The Principle of Heterogeneity

Question 30

Identify the principle

‘The rhizome is made only of lines’. These lines can be severed or broken, but because it is acentred, such breakages do not impede its function but can instead create new lines for growth or transformation.

Answer 30

The Principle of Asignifying Rupture

Question 31

a phenomenon where we end up taking on the shared emotional states of others to whom we are connected via social media.

Answer 31

emotional contagion

Question 32

‘the sense of being in an environment’

Answer 32

presence

Question 33

the experience of presence in an environment by means of a communication medium

Answer 33

telepresence

Question 34

the ability of a technology to produce a rich environment for the senses in terms of sensory depth and breadth

Answer 34

vividness

Question 35

the number of senses engaged in the medium (sight, sound, smell, haptic, taste)

Answer 35

Sensory breadth

Question 36

the quality or resolution the medium provides to a given sense

Answer 36

Sensory depth

Question 37

the degree to which the user of a medium can influence the form and content of their mediated environment

Answer 37

interactivity

Question 38

the nature of objects and activities which exist, but are not tangible or concrete

Answer 38

virtuality

Question 39

• relies upon the immobility of the spectator
• allows for the creation of aesthetic objects that are fixed in space and time and refer to something outside themselves

Answer 39

representation tradition

Question 40

• relies on a mobile spectator.
• there is a blending of the virtual world of the created work and the physical space of the spectator or audience.

Answer 40

tradition of simulation

Question 41

List

Key Elements of Digital Media

Answer 41

Technical processes NHADID
1. Digital
2. Networked
3. Interactive
4. Hypertextual/hypermediated
5. Automated
6. Databased

Cultural forms CVRPV
7. Context (or lack of it)
8. Variability
9. Rhizome
10. Process
11. Viral

Immersive experiences TVS
12. Telepresence
13. Virtuality
14. Simulation