The Habitat of Information: Social and Organizational Consequences of Information Growth

The 8th Social Study of ICT workshop (SSIT8) at LSE

25 April 2008

How to Track Global Digital Culture
Lev Manovich

The exponential growth of a number of both non-professional and professional media producers over the last decade has created a fundamentally new cultural situation. Hundreds of millions of people are routinely created and sharing cultural content (blogs, photos, videos, online comments and discussions, etc.). As the number of mobile phones is projected to grow during 2008 from 2.2 billion to 3 billion during 2008, this number is only going to increase. At the same time, the rapid growth of professional educational and cultural institutions in many newly globalized countries along with the instant availability of cultural news over the web has also dramatically increased the number of "culture professionals" who participate in global cultural production and discussions. Hundreds of thousands of students, artists, designers have now access to the same ideas, information and tools. It is no longer possible to talk about centres and provinces. In fact, the students, culture professionals, and governments in newly globalized countries are often more ready to embrace latest ideas than their equivalents in "old centres" of world culture. Before, cultural theorists and historians could generate theories and histories based on small data sets (for instance, "classical Hollywood cinema," "Italian Renaissance," etc.) But how can we track "global digital culture" (or cultures), with its billions of cultural objects, and hundreds of millions of contributors? Before you could write about culture by following what was going on in a small number of world capitals and schools. But how can we follow the developments in tens of thousands of cities and educational institutions? Impossible as this may sound, this actually can be done…

Lev Manovich is a Professor in Visual Arts Department, University of California -San Diego, a Director of the Software Studies Initiative at California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CALIT2), and a Visiting Research Professor at Goldsmith College, University of London, and the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales (Sydney). You can also visit Lev's website.