Being quite interested in traditional photography, I found this essay quite interesting. I also enjoyed the aspect that Manovich had written this essay in the mid-1990's, and what he was writing about at the time - being so innovative has since (pretty much) been developed, and is something that we can enjoy now.
I find it interesting that he talks about Film maybe someday disappearing
"Thus, film may soon disappear - but not cinema" I personally don't think that film will ever disappear. I relate this back to when it was said that the Internet would someday make books useless, and that no one would use them any more, but we know that this is not the case. People like books, some people trust books a lot more than the Internet, and with the physical, it's about experience. I think that this also relates to film. The craft of film making, and photography is an art, and I think people love it, and appreciate the 'rawness'. Films now such as Shrek and Beowulf which are purely computer generated are amazing to watch, and use great advances in technology, but I think that people only appreciate them, because of the contrast between them and "real-life" footage.
It was also interesting to look at this essay in relation to our Brief
Design Futures as it was looking back at what Manovich was discussing and predicting for the future about 13 years ago. When you think that most of what he was predicting has been somewhat accomplished, to then try and look forward another 10 or so years to see how we may have further developed can be quite exciting.
