Lev Manovich is one of the most prominent figures in new media theory and is known for its numerous insightful articles. His ideas about the dominance of databases over narratives in the new media are reflected in several famous articles. Manovich’s ideas about database dominance in new media are based on natural consequences of the computerization of modern culture and can be illustrated by the example of The Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov.
In his article “Database as a symbolic form”, Manovich presents his theory about the causes of the privileged position of a database in new media. The author reveals that while a database is a collection of individual items, each of which presents the same significance, a narrative form unites items that are organized into a sequence (Manovich, 2000, p. 176). The user of a narrative follows the links in the piece of media according to the sequence established by the creator while the user of a database is free to follow the links in any sequence considered by him/her appropriate (Manovich, 2001, p. 225).
The author demonstrates that the dominance of databases over narratives is a distinctive feature of computer culture and new media. Therefore, numerous new media pieces do not present any sequence, as they do not tell any story and are not supposed to have any beginning, development, and end (Manovich, 2001, p. 218).
The philosophy of database in new media can be illustrated by one of the most famous documentaries Man with a Movie Camera. The movie presents a number of ordinary everyday events witnessed by Dziga Vertov in several cities of the Soviet Union. The movie reminds of a form of a database – a collection of pieces of information about the life of Soviet people in the first half of the twentieth century presented in the form of scenes taken from the real world (Undervoid, 2012).
Such approach to creating the scenes can be considered rather innovative, as most movies require the creation of artificial scenes and participation of actors while Vertov’s movie depicts real people in real life. Besides, the author’s innovativeness is reflected in the use of a great number of cinematic techniques, which make the movie stand out from the rest of films those times. The use of double exposure, slow motion, split screens are the inventions that were rather difficult to be found in the movies of the 1920s-1930s. However, Vertov managed to introduce many of such inventions and become a prominent filmmaker of his time.
Besides, Manovich reveals that while during the film editing of an ordinary movie, the editors are supposed to order the shot material according to the script aimed at creating the certain sequence of events in the movie, the editing of Man with a Movie Camera differed from such process, as its creators ordered the shots to “discover the hidden order of the world” instead of adjusting them to the script (Manovich, 2000, p. 182).
Such approach can be considered another innovation introduced by Vertov. I think, the inventions used by Vertov are the keys to the creation of the unique piece of cinematography, as they contribute to the impressiveness of the narrative.
The analysis of Manovich’s ideas about the database concept in new media helps to understand that the narrative structure can be considered rather irrelevant to the modern media culture. Database structure, on the contrary, seems to be well-adjusted to modern media and its specifics can be analyzed with the help of Dziga Vertov’s movie.