Lev Manovich’s *Cultural Analytics* argues that to theorize digital culture, it must first be seen, and that computers are necessary to perceive its immense scale. The book equips scholars with practical methods for studying contemporary media by demonstrating how to transform cultural processes into computational data. It introduces concepts for exploring these datasets, primarily focusing on visual media, using data visualization and advanced image/video analysis techniques.
The book presents a computationally-driven approach to media theory, exploring both the potential and limitations of these analytical methods. It addresses the challenges computational analysis poses to traditional understandings of culture and its study, bridging data science and media studies with concepts like the shift from "new media" to "more media" and the societal use of data and algorithms.
Key concepts
- Cultural Analytics — A field that uses computational methods to analyze cultural data, particularly visual media.
- Computational data — Information derived from cultural processes that can be processed by computers.
- Data visualization — A method used to explore and understand cultural datasets.
- Image and video datasets — Collections of visual media analyzed using recently developed computational methods.
- New media to more media — A conceptual shift in understanding contemporary digital culture.