Lev Manovich
Biographic Data
| ID | 3847546 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lev Manovich |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lev |
| FAMILY NAME | Manovich |
| SIGNATURE | MANOVICH L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lev Manovich, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, Ph.D. Program in Computer Science, 365 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA. Email: [email protected]. |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0667-7584 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 72 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Unreliable Past: Constructing Memory with Generative AI
The author examines generative AI as a new type of “memory machine,” exploring its role in constructing and visualizing both personal and collective memories. Through theoretical analysis and artistic practice, he investigates how AI-generated images combine historical documentation with aesthetic idealization, creating representations that are simultaneously familiar and unreliable. The author contextualizes this phenomenon within the history of…
Instagram as a narrative platform
Even though Instagram has been the subject of numerous studies, none of them have systematically investigated its potential as a narrative medium. This article argues that Instagram’s narrative capabilities are comparable to those of literature and film. To support our claims, we analyze a number of prominent female Instagram creators and demonstrate how they employ the platform’s diverse features, functionalities, and interface to create multi-y…
Separate and Reassemble: Generative AI through the lens of art and media histories
AI image generation represents a logical evolution from early digital media algorithms, starting with basic paint programs in the 1970s and advancing to sophisticated 3D graphics and media creation software by the 1990s. Early algorithms struggled to simulate materials and effects, but advances in the 1970s and 1980s led to realistic simulations of natural phenomena and artistic techniques. Generative AI continues this trend, using neural network…
Computer vision, human senses, and language of art
The aesthetic society: Or how I edit my Instagram 1
We live in the aesthetic society (i.e., the society of aesthetically sophisticated consumer goods and services). In such a society, the production of beautiful images, interfaces, objects, and experiences, are central to economic and social functioning. Rather than being a property of art, sophisticated aesthetics becomes the key property of commercial goods and services. Aesthetic society values space designers, user-experience designers, archit…
Cultural Analytics
A book at the intersection of data science and media studies, presenting concepts and methods for computational analysis of cultural data. How can we see a billion images? What analytical methods can we bring to bear on the astonishing scale of digital culture—the terabytes of photographs shared on social media every day, the hundreds of millions of songs created by twenty million musicians on Sound Cloud, the content of four billion Pinterest bo…
Cultural Viz: An Aesthetic Approach to Cultural Analytics
Cultural Analytics (C.A.) is an approach for analyzing media and digital culture using data methods and visual computing techniques. This article explores the aesthetic value of C.A. by approaching cultural visualizations as digital artworks. The authors present a variety of techniques developed since 2007 by members of the C.A. lab for creating visualizations of media artifacts and collections of images. Through a series of projects conducted by…
The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty
A comprehensive political and design theory of planetary-scale computation proposing that The Stack—an accidental megastructure—is both a technological apparatus and a model for a new geopolitical architecture. What has planetary-scale computation done to our geopolitical realities? It takes different forms at different scales—from energy and mineral sourcing and subterranean cloud infrastructure to urban software and massive universal addressing…
The Science of Culture? Social Computing, Digital Humanities and Cultural Analytics
I developed the concept of cultural analytics in 2005 to refer to “the analysis ofmassive cultural datasets and flows using computational and visualization tech-niques.” In 2007 we established a research lab (Software Studies Initiative, softwarestudies.com) to start working on practical projects
Software is the Message
Transmedia Frictions: The Digital, the Arts, and the Humanities
Editors Marsha Kinder and Tara McPherson present an authoritative collection of essays on the continuing debates over medium specificity and the politics of the digital arts. Comparing the term "transmedia" with "transnational," they show that the movement beyond specific media or nations does not invalidate those entities but makes us look more closely at the cultural specificity of each combination. In two parts, the book stages debates across …
Media After Software
While earlier reproduction technologies such as woodblock printing, moveable type printing, lithography, and photography represented media in ways accessible to bare senses, the media technologies of the late 19th century abandoned these formats in favor of an electrical signal. Simultaneously, they also introduced a fundamentally new dimension of media – interface (i.e. the ways to represent and control the signal). And this in its turn changed …
Software Takes Command
Software has replaced a diverse array of physical, mechanical, and electronic technologies used before 21st century to create, store, distribute and interact with cultural artifacts. It has become our interface to the world, to others, to our memory and our imagination - a universal language through which the world speaks, and a universal engine on which the world runs. What electricity and combustion engine were to the early 20th century, softwa…
Zooming into an Instagram City: Reading the local through social media
How are users’ experiences of production, sharing, and interaction with the media they create mediated by the interfaces of particular social media platforms? How can we use computational analysis and visualizations of the content of visual social media (e.g., user photos, as opposed to upload dates, locations, tags and other metadata) to study social and cultural patterns? How can we visualize this media on multiple spatial and temporal scales? …
Software Takes Command
Trending: The Promises and the Challenges of Big Social Data
The term Big Data is applied to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big data sizes are a constantly moving target, currently ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of data in a single data set. This chapter addresses some of the theoretical and practical issues raised by the possibility of using massive amounts of social …
What is visualisation
This article proposes that the practice of information visualisation (infovis), from its beginnings in the second part of the eighteenth century until today, relied on two key principles. The first principle is reduction. Infovis uses graphical primitives such as points, straight lines, curves and simple geometric shapes to stand in for objects and relations between them. The second principle is the use of spatial variables (position, size, shape…
The Practice of Everyday (Media) Life: From Mass Consumption to Mass Cultural Production
The poetics of urban media surfaces
Although historically built environments were almost always covered with ornament, texts and images, the phenomenon of the dynamic multimedia information in these environments is new. Living your life in the modern city, you constantly interact with multiple urban media interfaces - from the small screen of a mobile phone to a large screen of a public electronic billboard. This essay will discuss how the general dynamic between spatial form and i…
The poetics of augmented space
This article discusses how people experience spatial forms when they are filled in with dynamic and rich multimedia information; spaces such as shopping or entertainment areas or other spaces where various information can be accessed wirelessly. The author calls such spaces ‘augmented space’: the physical space overlaid with dynamically changing information, multimedia in form and localized for each user. The article asks whether this form become…
Voiceover
Essay| February 01 2002 Voiceover Geoffrey Batchen, Geoffrey Batchen Geoffrey Batchen teaches the history of photography at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Rachel Greene, Rachel Greene Rachel Greene was a Helena Rubenstein Critical Studies Fellow of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program from 1999-2000. A board member and former editor of Rhizome.org, Green…
The Language of New Media
In this book Lev Manovich offers the first systematic and rigorous theory of new He places new media within the histories of visual and media cultures of the last few centuries. He discusses new media's reliance on conventions of old media, such as the rectangular frame and mobile camera, and shows how new media works create the illusion of reality, address the viewer, and represent space. He also analyzes categories and forms unique to new media…
Shift-CTRL
February 01 2002 SHIFT-CTRL Antoinette Lafarge, Antoinette Lafarge Department of Studio Art University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92697, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Robert Nideffer, Robert Nideffer 2127 Glendon Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90025, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Natalie Bookchin, Natalie Bookchi…
Ten Key Texts on Digital Art: 1970-2000
This article highlights ten major written works that reflect the brief history of digital art. The lack of public knowledge on digital art is largely due to a lack of standard text. While seen by most as a relatively new art form, several exhibitions are mentioned here dating from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, all of which have had a major impact on the development of the field. Authors and editors chosen for the list include Gene Youngblood…
Database as a genre of new media
The Practice of Everyday (Media) Life: From Mass Consumption to Mass Cultural Production
The poetics of augmented space
This article discusses how people experience spatial forms when they are filled in with dynamic and rich multimedia information; spaces such as shopping or entertainment areas or other spaces where various information can be accessed wirelessly. The author calls such spaces ‘augmented space’: the physical space overlaid with dynamically changing information, multimedia in form and localized for each user. The article asks whether this form become…
Separate and Reassemble: Generative AI through the lens of art and media histories
AI image generation represents a logical evolution from early digital media algorithms, starting with basic paint programs in the 1970s and advancing to sophisticated 3D graphics and media creation software by the 1990s. Early algorithms struggled to simulate materials and effects, but advances in the 1970s and 1980s led to realistic simulations of natural phenomena and artistic techniques. Generative AI continues this trend, using neural network…
Cultural Viz: An Aesthetic Approach to Cultural Analytics
Cultural Analytics (C.A.) is an approach for analyzing media and digital culture using data methods and visual computing techniques. This article explores the aesthetic value of C.A. by approaching cultural visualizations as digital artworks. The authors present a variety of techniques developed since 2007 by members of the C.A. lab for creating visualizations of media artifacts and collections of images. Through a series of projects conducted by…
The Soviets’ Other Arsenal
Essay| February 01 1991 The Soviets’ Other Arsenal: An Interview with Mikhail Yampolski Lev Manovich, Lev Manovich Lev Manovich are Ph.D. candidates in the Comparative Arts program at the University of Rochester. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Alla Yefimov Alla Yefimov Alla Yefimov are Ph.D. candidates in the Comparative Arts program at the University of Rochester. Search for other works by this author o…
Altered States
Review| January 01 1991 Altered States The State of Representation: Representation and the State at New York University, New York, NY, October 26-28, 1990 Lev Manovich Lev Manovich Lev Manovich is a Ph.D student in the Comparative Arts Program at the University of Rochester who also works in commercial computer animation. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (1991) 18 (6): 5. https://doi.org/10.1525…
Synthetic Realism
Essay| September 01 1992 Synthetic Realism: The Mythology of Computer Graphics Lev Manovich Lev Manovich Lev Manovich teaches computer graphics at Syracuse University and writes about modem visjal technologies. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (1992) 20 (2): 12–14. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.1992.20.2.12 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Revi…
Virtual Cave Dwellers
News| October 01 1992 Virtual Cave Dwellers: Siggraph '92 SIGGRAPH '92 19th Annual International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois July 26-31 Lev Manovich Lev Manovich Lev Manovich teaches computer graphics at Syracuse University and writes about modern visual technologies. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (1992) 20 (3): 3–4. https://d…
Tekstura: Russian Essays on Visual Culture
Fascinated by the myth of the Russian avant-garde and scornful of official art, the West has been selective in its engagement with Russian visual culture. Yet how do contemporary Russian scholars and critics themselves approach the history of visual culture in the former Soviet Union? Taking its title from a Russian word that can refer to the texture of life, painting, or writing, Tekstura assembles 13 key essays in art history and cultural theor…
Digital constructivism: What is European software? An exchange between Lev Manovich and Geert Lovink
Database as a genre of new media
Voiceover
Essay| February 01 2002 Voiceover Geoffrey Batchen, Geoffrey Batchen Geoffrey Batchen teaches the history of photography at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Rachel Greene, Rachel Greene Rachel Greene was a Helena Rubenstein Critical Studies Fellow of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program from 1999-2000. A board member and former editor of Rhizome.org, Green…
The Language of New Media
In this book Lev Manovich offers the first systematic and rigorous theory of new He places new media within the histories of visual and media cultures of the last few centuries. He discusses new media's reliance on conventions of old media, such as the rectangular frame and mobile camera, and shows how new media works create the illusion of reality, address the viewer, and represent space. He also analyzes categories and forms unique to new media…
Shift-CTRL
February 01 2002 SHIFT-CTRL Antoinette Lafarge, Antoinette Lafarge Department of Studio Art University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92697, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Robert Nideffer, Robert Nideffer 2127 Glendon Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90025, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Natalie Bookchin, Natalie Bookchi…
Ten Key Texts on Digital Art: 1970-2000
This article highlights ten major written works that reflect the brief history of digital art. The lack of public knowledge on digital art is largely due to a lack of standard text. While seen by most as a relatively new art form, several exhibitions are mentioned here dating from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, all of which have had a major impact on the development of the field. Authors and editors chosen for the list include Gene Youngblood…
The poetics of urban media surfaces
Although historically built environments were almost always covered with ornament, texts and images, the phenomenon of the dynamic multimedia information in these environments is new. Living your life in the modern city, you constantly interact with multiple urban media interfaces - from the small screen of a mobile phone to a large screen of a public electronic billboard. This essay will discuss how the general dynamic between spatial form and i…
The poetics of augmented space
This article discusses how people experience spatial forms when they are filled in with dynamic and rich multimedia information; spaces such as shopping or entertainment areas or other spaces where various information can be accessed wirelessly. The author calls such spaces ‘augmented space’: the physical space overlaid with dynamically changing information, multimedia in form and localized for each user. The article asks whether this form become…
The Practice of Everyday (Media) Life: From Mass Consumption to Mass Cultural Production
What is visualisation
This article proposes that the practice of information visualisation (infovis), from its beginnings in the second part of the eighteenth century until today, relied on two key principles. The first principle is reduction. Infovis uses graphical primitives such as points, straight lines, curves and simple geometric shapes to stand in for objects and relations between them. The second principle is the use of spatial variables (position, size, shape…
Trending: The Promises and the Challenges of Big Social Data
The term Big Data is applied to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big data sizes are a constantly moving target, currently ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of data in a single data set. This chapter addresses some of the theoretical and practical issues raised by the possibility of using massive amounts of social …
Media After Software
While earlier reproduction technologies such as woodblock printing, moveable type printing, lithography, and photography represented media in ways accessible to bare senses, the media technologies of the late 19th century abandoned these formats in favor of an electrical signal. Simultaneously, they also introduced a fundamentally new dimension of media – interface (i.e. the ways to represent and control the signal). And this in its turn changed …
Software Takes Command
Software has replaced a diverse array of physical, mechanical, and electronic technologies used before 21st century to create, store, distribute and interact with cultural artifacts. It has become our interface to the world, to others, to our memory and our imagination - a universal language through which the world speaks, and a universal engine on which the world runs. What electricity and combustion engine were to the early 20th century, softwa…
Zooming into an Instagram City: Reading the local through social media
How are users’ experiences of production, sharing, and interaction with the media they create mediated by the interfaces of particular social media platforms? How can we use computational analysis and visualizations of the content of visual social media (e.g., user photos, as opposed to upload dates, locations, tags and other metadata) to study social and cultural patterns? How can we visualize this media on multiple spatial and temporal scales? …
Software Takes Command
Software is the Message
Transmedia Frictions: The Digital, the Arts, and the Humanities
Editors Marsha Kinder and Tara McPherson present an authoritative collection of essays on the continuing debates over medium specificity and the politics of the digital arts. Comparing the term "transmedia" with "transnational," they show that the movement beyond specific media or nations does not invalidate those entities but makes us look more closely at the cultural specificity of each combination. In two parts, the book stages debates across …
The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty
A comprehensive political and design theory of planetary-scale computation proposing that The Stack—an accidental megastructure—is both a technological apparatus and a model for a new geopolitical architecture. What has planetary-scale computation done to our geopolitical realities? It takes different forms at different scales—from energy and mineral sourcing and subterranean cloud infrastructure to urban software and massive universal addressing…
The Science of Culture? Social Computing, Digital Humanities and Cultural Analytics
I developed the concept of cultural analytics in 2005 to refer to “the analysis ofmassive cultural datasets and flows using computational and visualization tech-niques.” In 2007 we established a research lab (Software Studies Initiative, softwarestudies.com) to start working on practical projects
The aesthetic society: Or how I edit my Instagram 1
We live in the aesthetic society (i.e., the society of aesthetically sophisticated consumer goods and services). In such a society, the production of beautiful images, interfaces, objects, and experiences, are central to economic and social functioning. Rather than being a property of art, sophisticated aesthetics becomes the key property of commercial goods and services. Aesthetic society values space designers, user-experience designers, archit…
Computer Science (25 works) · Art (16 works) · World Wide Web (15 works) · Visual arts (14 works) · Multimedia (8 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works) · Digital media (6 works) · Human–computer interaction (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Citation (5 works)