Computer vs Culture

As society becomes more reliant on technologies, cultural products are being converted into the computer realm. What is now known as old media like television, print and cinema are being digitalised to help the pace of society speed up. Artwork and literature are no longer confined to museums or libraries, we can now view catalogues of artwork online, download whole albums, watch live performances in the comfort of our own home. Culture has become accessible to the individual, on the surface this seems like a positive outcome of the technological age. But a closer inspection of new media and its effects on cultural products needs to take place if we are to really assess the impact of this change. I this essay I will be looking at the performance poetry show Def Poetry Jam, with the use of Manovichs five principles I will attempt to show how the shift of screen from television to the computer site allows the audience or user to not just be a spectator but also a participant (making the viewing somewhat of a political statement). So in looking at how the “computer layer” affects the “cultural layer” Concluding on how the aesthetic possibilities caused by the ‘computer layer” may have increased, the aesthetic values are being jepordised.


In his book ‘The Language of New Media’ (2001) Lev Manovich explores the principles of new Media. Manovich looks at the main differences between old and new media, stating that these principles are not ‘absolute laws’ but rather outlines of the shift in the computerization of culture.

Manovich views his fifth principle Transcoding is the ‘most substantial consequence of the computerization of media’. (Manovich. 2001:45) The conversion that occurs in cultural Transcoding can affect the original subject, Manovich states that through this process the cultural product is split into two layers the what he calls the “cultural layer’ which is the aesthetics of a cultural product and also the “computer layer” which it the programming or the computerization of the product.

Def Jam Poetry is the brainchild of music mogul Russell Simmons. It is a spoken word series that initially targeted African American consciousness, with black poets ranging from ghetto youth lyricists to infamous coffee club performers, now on its sixth season many celebrities and actors have graced the DJP stage. A form of entertainment, Def Poetry Jam also educates the American community on the issues still affecting the urban community. By allowing the voices to speak of the political, social and economic struggles that they face in the modern society, the intimate tales highlight a global struggle still affecting the Black community.



You tube /Opportunities for a global community
You tube is a popular website created in 2005 and now owned by Google. Its tagline is ‘Broadcast Yourself’ and that’s exactly why it has become an infamous new media site. The invitation has encouraged users to upload their video blogs while also giving them the opportunity to watch television and movie clips. The technology used is Macromedia Flash Player 7, which allows the user to upload their videos without downloading a program. You tube allows users to design their own page, design the layout and add their favourite videos to create an online identity. You tube is a prime example of Manovichs fourth principle of Variability. The site changes the cultural layer through placing the product in a domain that encourages interactivity.

“Such popular new media structures as branching (or menu) interactivity and hypermedia can be seen as particular instances of the variability principle. In the case of branching interactivity, the user plays an active role in determining the order in which already generated elements are accessed. This is the simplest thing of interactivity; more complex kinds are also possible in which both the elements and the structures of the whole object are either modified or generated on the fly in response to the users interaction with a program. We can refer to such implementations as open interactivity to distinguish them from the closed interactivity that uses fixed elements arranged in a fixed branching structure.”(Manovich.2001:41)

The layout of the page has the video in a window so while your watching Def Jam Poetry you can also see other videos related to the show or subject matter. So you can instantly move to next performance without adverts or commentary unlike if it was being watched in television. The ‘branching system’ that Manovich talks about breaks down the data into segments to make it faster for the user to jump from one piece of data to the next.

“A hyperlink creates a connection between two elements for example between two words in two different pages or a sentence on one page and an image in another, or two places within the same page”.
The formats of computers now can allow you to have multiple pages or sites open at the same time so while your having a visual and audible experience you can look in the search engine for concrete information just in case you would like to research what your watching for example online newspapers or online books.

“The emergence of new media coincides with the second stage of a media society, now concerned as much with accessing and reusing existing media objects as with creating new ones.”

Launching You Tube Remixer this year, this automation process allows users to montage videos.
Users can watch the poetry as spectators but they can still leave commentaries under the window and participate in the subject matters. They can send and share links and therefore pass information immediately. Due to the demographic of You tube the show has an ability to increase its target audience.

The theoretician Chris May would find this a positive outcome in technological advancements as he argued that new technologies would determine a space where freedom of expression can be maximised and creations like the Internet will work on ‘democracy and efficiency’.

John Naisbitt’s book ‘Global Paradox’ (1994) highlights the optimistic belief that Digitalisation and the new media would result in a society with better social, political and economical relationships. For example the show might be aired at a time of despair, therefore the performances might reflect the concerns of the community, technology therefore allows people to get first hand footage or information in real time, instantly.

“Old media involved a human creator who manually assembled textual, visual and or audio elements into particular composition or sequence. This sequence was stored in some material its order determined once and for all…new media in contrast is characterised by variability. (…) Instead of identical copies, a new media object typically gives rise to many different versions.” (Manovich.2001:36)

Aesthetic possibilities/The loss off aura?
Def Jam Poetry is a show that tries to recreate the intimacy of a late night coffee club. Just like the stage actor, the poets are confined to the space or the platform their message is initially is for the immediate audience. The cultural layer has progressed from underground club to television and now online. From the written word to the spoken word performance for audience and now for a global community. Due to the to reproduction of the original video, there is a loss of the original contextualisation. Most art pieces are made at specific times and periods even though can still be admired after this time there is a need to place it in context to fully appreciate its value.

Does the computer layer have an affect on the affect the aesthetic values of Def Jam Poetry? One argument could be an optimistic view of technology, the computer allows audiences to play with video footage share it, sending it to others in an instance therefore reaching a larger community, and Poetry has found difficulty finding a platform in the mainstream popular culture so maybe this is an emergence of a cultural change.

I find it surreal to watch live poetry, a performance that plays on words and plays on language, fluidly linking sentence to sentence taking the viewer to another world if only for a few minutes, this on a screen that with visual aids plays on words leading to other footages and also other worlds. You can also make the window full screen but when this is done the quality of the footage is decreased.
“There is an indefinite amount of information in a continuous-tone photograph, so enlargement usually reveals more detail but yields a fuzzier and grainier picture…A digital image, on the other hand, has precisely limited spatial and tonal resolution and contains a fixed amount of information.” (Mitchell.1982:52-53)

This automatically effects the cultural layer as we are reminded that we are still watching a screen and therefore there is a somewhat detachment in our voyeurism as I believe that spoken word demands intimacy to appreciate the ‘aura’ of the poem. Therefore the user is unable to live and share the full emotions and experience of hearing the performance live. We are aware of what the computer layer adds to the cultural layer but what does it take away? How does this affect the aesthetic value? Can it really take away the “aura”?
In one of his important essays ‘The work of Art in Mechanical reproduction’ the literary-philosopher Walter Benjamin explains the need to see or be part of the original product in a technological world where reproduction becomes the norm.

“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence.” (Benjaman 1968:214)
Using Benjamin’s theory, I argue that due to the digitilisation of the cultural product can reach ‘situations’ that old media can not. But this urge to reproduce and change the original medium, Benjamin argues that this process can ‘decay’ the ‘aura’.
“…The technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. And in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it reactivates the object reproduced. These two processes are intimately connected with the contemporary mass movements.” (Benjaman 1968:214)

In summarising the points discussed, I would argue that the computer layer affects the cultural layer of Def Jam Poetry through, modification, interactivity due to the online community, also the issue of accessibility. The choices that are created through the computer layer reflect the post-modern culture that we live in but this need for immediate ‘satisfaction’ weather for information or pleasure can take away from appreciating the original. The computer layer can transform and renew the danger only arrives when it replaces the cultural layer.



Benjamin, W. (1968) Illuminations English translation Harcourt, Brace & World Inc.,
Manovich, L. (2001) The Language of New Media. The MIT Press; Massachusetts Institute of Technology