The Modularity of New Media

Fig. 1. - A variation of the Sierpinski triangle fractal.

Modularity is the degree to which an object can be taken, disassembled, and then reassembled in the same or a different composition. This can be considered as an important property of new media, as it is what enables adaption of media across multiple platforms in modern technology. The most prominent example would be a mobile only home page using the same elements as a desktop, but in a different composition.

Manovich (p.20) defines the modular property of new media as a, "fractal structure of new media." A somewhat misleading term, as the typical property of a theoretical fractal is that it is self similar, i.e. it has infinite detail. (Mandelbrot, P1). This is not a property of new media as Manovich describes it, "Media elements, be it images, sounds, shapes, or behaviors, are represented as collections of discrete samples." (p.20).

Instead, Manovich is referring to the idea that when taken out of the visual context of the composition as a whole, any section of a fractal will maintain it's own form. This stays true to new media, for example, an embedded flash element can be taken out of a web page and viewed alone without the other elements. You can go even further by opening the file in it's authoring software, in which you can take each individual element such as an audio clip and view that without the other elements of the flash file. That audio file could then be re-purposed in an entirely new flash project and so on and so forth. Even compiled programs, such as an EXE can be reverse engineered to extract images, sounds, and video.

The importance of the second property, modularity, is arguable however as Manovich (p. 18) stated, "principles 3-5 are dependent on the principles 1-2." Modularity certainly paves the way for automation, as without it repeatable subroutines become impossible. Variability and Transcoding also become an issue without modularity, as can be demonstrated by the initial example of a mobile specific website. All new media has modular properties which make automation, variation, and transcoding possible.


Bibliography
Manovich, L. (2001). The language of new media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Benoit Mandelbrot (May 1967). "How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension". Science Magazine.

Fig. 1.  "FireLizzard", (2009), Sirpinski Triangle Variation [ONLINE]. Available at: http://waprile.weblog.tudelft.nl/files/2009/04/Sierpinskifull_1797-fireLizzard.png [Accessed 13 October 13].