On ***** Media - Response

In On ***** Media, Hovagimyan discusses how innovations in digital media allows for the boundaries between different forms of ‘old’ media to be blurred. Digital media gives us the ability to sample several different forms of media and combine them in various ways.

I found the article itself to be rather weak and unconvincing – Hovagimyan cited very few sources supporting his position, for the most part only bringing up sources to refute them as part of his argument. However, he did bring up some interesting points about the origins of our modern, continuous media. Once photography was readily available and artists did not have to struggle for realism as much, they began to find ways to bend the truth and manipulate what was being seen through a camera lens.

I was reminded of an unusual combination of film with other media; La Jetée (d. Chris Marker, 1960) is a science-fiction short film composed almost entirely of still images accompanied by narration. Though the film barely qualifies as such, it challenges the standard form of film by drawing attention to the medium itself. Film is nothing more than a series of still images, so theoretically this film is no different. By injecting a short video clip in the middle of the film, it further draws attention to the unique way it interprets the medium.

An English dub of La Jetée (approx. 30min) can be found here: http://vimeo.com/46620661.