LEV & MY THESIS

The database logic is very relevant to my thesis topic of the digital biography. I discuss the two main benefits of this new biography as being all of the multimedia content it can hold, as well as its ability to let users decide how they experience the biographically presented life. Manovich acknowledges this new format: “Another example of a database form is a multimedia genre that does not have an equivalent in traditional media—CD-ROMs devoted to a single cultural figure such as a famous architect, film director, or write. Instead of a narrative biography, we are presented with a database of images, sound recordings, video clips, and/or texts that can be navigated in a variety of ways” (220). He later says that the Internet holds this same function (220). I feel affirmed that he agrees with me that the digital biography is fundamentally something new.

Furthermore, he addresses the idea of users choosing their own path, claiming however that that path is not necessarily a narrative although it can be: “But merely to create these trajectories is of course not sufficient; the author also has to control the semantics of the elements and the logic of their connection so that the resulting object will meet the criteria of narrative” (228). Therefore, my digital biography is not a narrative. Good to know.