This website is the signature piece of the exhibit Transcoding the Museum, exploring Lev Manovich's fifth principle of New Media Art.[1] The website serves as a central hub, showcasing all other pieces in the exhibit and applying additional principles of New Media Art.
Lev Manovich defines "transcoding" as a central concept in his theory of New Media. In The Language of New Media, he describes transcoding as translating cultural forms and practices between different media formats and technological systems. This translation involves converting information from one format to another, often altering perception and interaction.
Manovich identifies two levels of transcoding: 1. Technical Transcoding: This level focuses on converting data between technical formats, such as transforming a digital image into a JPEG or an audio file into an MP3. It deals with the technical aspects of media conversion, 2.Cultural Transcoding: This level examines how cultural codes, practices, and meanings change as they move from traditional to digital media.[2] For example, it explores how the materiality of physical artifacts translates into a digital format on a website, highlighting the shift from their original cult value to their new role as exhibition items.
This project provides an alternative to the problematic representation and management of pre-Columbian and other tribal cultural artifacts displayed at the Lowe Art Museum.
[1] In The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich proposes five “principles of new media”—to be understood “not as absolute laws but rather as general tendencies of a culture undergoing computerization.” The five principles are numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and transcoding.
[2] Ibid.