Remediation Revisited

Bolter and Grusin take a great many pages to tell a simple story. They wish to state that all is remediation, and all remediation is dependent on other remediations. The authors give the example of the movie theater, including not only the big screen, but also the posters and videogames in the lobby (67), apparently reinforcing what the moviegoers have just watched.
The authors maintain that newly invented media will be used in relation to other media (66). Microcomputers are thought of in context of other technology such as the calculator, and adding machine. Cinema can make use of the computers, and the computers can make use of cinema. The example given is that as computer graphics improve, it would be possible to show high-quality actors on the screen (70), yet there may be no need for the actors if the graphics can duplicate them closer to life than currently possible.
They describe networks in which the remediation is dependent on a number of factors such as social, and economical (67). The authors mentioned the funding of certain media. There is scrutiny over the content brought by the media, for example, inappropriate shows on Saturday morning television what the media produce for the viewer. I was impressed that the social aspect goes more deeply. The authors mention that some wish to be referred to in different ways, in this case, actors who wish to be referred to as artists (69), which hearkens to days of earlier media, or cameramen as “social historians” (70)! Thus, remediation can change the way that users of the media look at themselves.
Bolter and Grusin continue to offer examples of hypermediacy in the past such as the components of a cathedral (34-35), and the elaborate systems of drawers and images in late renaissance cabinets (35). They also talk of hypermediacy in oil paintings (36).
The authors focus largely on photography, and the development of devices to influence representation. One of these is the stereoscope (37), which I played with as a child, and which provides a 3-dimensional illusion to the photograph (37).
The authors suggest hypermedia can be in music by turning up volume thus feeling as well as hearing music. (53).
Remediation also involves a change in the way the viewer perceives the media in question. An example that the authors give is digital photography. It is now easier to alter images to blur what is real from what is fiction. This can create a social problem worthy of Orwell if such technology is used by the news outlets to alter photographs and even film to distort information to the public. Perhaps ethical questions on remediation are needed.