Group Work on Remediation as Reform

The text “Remediation - Understanding New Media” written by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin is dealing with remediation which can be described as the process of refashioning something already existing. This could mean, for example, that every new medium is an improvement of another, older medium which could not fulfill its expectations. New media are the result of lacks or faults their predecessors had  (Bolter and Grusin 60). It is a reform which improves or refashions existing media making it more interactive in order to include its users (59). This text will deal with the question in how far Jay D. Bolter and Richard Grusin define remediation as “reform”. 

As remediation was defined before, reform can be explained by the cinema, for example, which is a reformation of the theatre. Furthermore, reform is responsible for technology to improve, so that “technology reforms itself” (61). Bolter and Grusin realize that “remediation is reform in the sense that media reform reality itself”. Moreover it is claimed that media hybrids, which are also defined as affiliations of technical artifacts, are as present as objects of science (61). To corroborate their statement, Bolter and Grusin explain that media enhances reality by telling that virtual reality is also reforming reality, because it shows us an “alternative visual world” which can be seen as a place of “presence” and “meaning” for people (61). Nowadays, people crave after new media that is reformed and remediated because it seems to have a huge value for them to always have the newest technology.

As both authors note "No medium, it seems, can now function independently and establish its own separate and purified space of cultural meaning" (55). The interconnected nature of media does indeed shade and blur the lines between each medium, as the technology we now possess and commonly use allows us to access and utilize different media sources with ease. Be it a QR code on a printed ad, a number for voting with your smartphone for “The Voice”, or a viral video for an upcoming film, the success of various forms of media are now interlinked, and the web that links them continues to evolve as society accepts each new technology or remediated medium.

It is intriguing that Bolter and Grusin note the possible impact of the digital and interactive media on politics, and suggest that "even beyond claims for political reform [...] that the web and computer applications are creating a digital culture that will revolutionize commerce, education and social relationships" (60). Said at a time before Youtube, Facebook, Near Field Communication/RFID forms of payment, Khan Academy, Online Learning Platforms and the success of Obama's online campaign in reaching young voters, it can be said that the impact of our ever remediating ways have indeed drastically impacted our social relationships, education and commerce, and will continue to do so as our never-ending cycle of remediation continues.

Another focus in our seminar is on the remediation of old media. In their text, Bolter and Grusin mention that probably all mediation is remediation in one way or another; yet at the same time they admit that this might not be entirely true while all of their current media do at least serve as “remediators” (55). It is important to notice that this text has been published in 1999 and thus is outdated in terms of media. What they considered current media is old media for us now in 2013. A good example are the video games Myst and Riven, both mentioned in the text, which were considered highly authentic for their photorealistic graphics (55). That might have been true in the Nineties, when they were released, but today they are far below standard graphics. The evolution of graphics in video games might not be considered remediation as such, since it only enhances rather than becoming a different and new medium but currently we are also facing a whole new level of graphics in video games and movies, namely the illusion of seeing these graphics three dimensionally on our screens. These new graphics might be considered as “new” new media in terms of remediation.

Bolter, Jay D. and Richard Grusin. "Mediation and Remediation." Remediation: Understanding New Media.Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2000. 52-62. Print.