Assignment 10

#Temporality and the Multimedia Archive According to Ernest, temporal ontology offers a way to understand how all computer-based, calculational media are temporal or wordly, and this forces us to rethink the spatial emphasis of older regimes of memory. He also emphasized the temporality to the multimedial archive. If computer-based, calculational media is more worldly than the older version of media, then it should be more prevalent, multicultural, and more inclusive. The multimedial archive is wordly in the sense that many people can access this storage and its vast amount of knowledge for free (or almost for free). However, I wonder if that is true. Those in charge in the technology and possess the mathematical knowledge definitely have more influence in the platform of multimedia and its archive. Their influence is subtle and often not visible to the layman.

#Underway to Dual System It deals with the archiving of media artistic work but opens up to a wider ontological question of what the media are in the age of technical media. The author discussed the answer to the question by paraphrasing George David Birkhoff’s speech which emphasized that “aesthetics is, quite simply, about a “ratio of order and complexity”. This definition of aesthetics is very specific to archiving science-based art since it is technical and mathematical. This idea also raises the question about how to quantifies order and complexity and whether there are multiple standards for such measurements. Overall, Earnest raised questions about the practicalities of archiving science-based art and the ontology of media.

#Archives in Transition Ernest’s idea is that the archival order gives way to archival dynamics and the control structures specific to that. He also raised the question : does the archive become metaphorical in multimedia space? This question is not about the understanding of archive but also about the whole range of media that is related to visual culture and interface studies. Basically, if we fail to address the time-critical, technomathematical modulation of what comes out as the almost like metaphoric surface effect, we fail to understand where power lies in contemporary culture. To parse Ernest’s confusing expression, I have to reread multiple times. So archival order is the result of time-critical, technomathematical modulation. If we understand this order, then we can understand the dynamics and control structures that involve a whole range of media, visual culture and interface studies. This idea is reasonable for mordern archives since they are more likely to be time-critical and technomathematical than conventional archives.