Check out this media stack: two songs were created with instruments many, many years ago. Then they were recorded on tape. Then they found their way to mp3 format. Then they were imported into a game, where interactive graphics were added. Then a digital DJ remixed them, creating yet another format. Then they were output into a YouTube video (mp4 format). Then they were uploaded to a blog. That's seven different media transformations (assuming that the original tapes didn't go to vinyl or CD before turning into mp3s).
Taking this a few steps further, it's not hard to see that I could easily turn the blog into a link and then into a shorter, Tweet-friendly link, then post it to Twitter so it could then become a Tweet. Which someone could then post to their Facebook account via an RSS feed like Twitfeed. Which someone could then email to a friend, who in turn could gmail it to another friend through their cellphone, who could then conceivably embed it into a Word file as part of a new media project.
Along its journey, this evolving media has probably lived on server hard drives, user hard drives, traveled along fiber optic cables and copper wire, and might've even been in outerspace via satellites and maybe undersea via those fiber optic cables.
And hell, here's the link to the YouTube channel.
I wonder what those musicians would've thought if they'd only known...
Cemra, you bring up a very fascinating point! I never thought of this form of medium in that regard.
ReplyDeleteI love the infinite spiral image you're painting with your words! Media are endless simulation of the orginal until the original is completely lost in the chain...
ReplyDeleteWhat was the final point you were trying to make? It intrigues me but I really have no idea what you want to say. Are you trying to make this postmodern argument about 'nothing outside the text' or are you trying to say something else?
Show me your point.
d.
Very intriguing post. One never considers how many "transports" occur with an image or song. If you think about pictures taken by news photographers, it's quite similar. The picture is transported to the agency's main database and then it's disseminated to news media; they then place the images on their websites, syndicated sites, television stations, etc.
ReplyDelete@Ryan K: Exactly!
ReplyDelete@xli8: My point is that an awful lot of industrial infrastructure and personal and electronic energy is expended to transform and transport this initial performance through time, space and media in order to reach us. What initially was a moment in time has been enabled to reach billions of people at constantly evolving nexuses with our technologies. I guess I could've ended the entry by emphasizing this more. Thanks for bringing it out of me!
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