Database as Symbolic Form

Database as Symbolic Form

Web archiving

In his essay, Lev Manovich argues for the database as the key form of expression in digital culture, stating that the new cultural algorithm is a progression of information from reality, to media, to data, to the database. Manovich connects database philosophy to linguist Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotic philosophy, stating that the database reverses the relationship of systemic elements as syntagmatic (in praesentia) or paradigmatic (in absentia); new media turns narrative—once seen as explicit—into a mere series of links, while the database stores the elements themselves. According to Manovich, this leads to both a desire for new and experimental forms of narrative, and a valuation of computer logic by artists and within the culture at large.

Manovich, Lev
Vesna, Victoria

University of Minnesota Press

2007

Sara Raffel

Essay

Manovich, Lev. “Database as Symbolic Form.” In Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow, edited by Victoria Vesna, 39-60. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.