Compression and Digital Media Infrastructures

The word compression is used to describe a technical process that renders a mode of representation adequate to its infrastructures. Humanists and engineers, still evaluate media in terms of their ability to produce authentic effects. Sterne presented the idea of compression with a historical background. He compared the phenomenon with packing a suitcase. “You have too many clothes to fit in it,” he said, “so you roll them up, you squish them until you run out of space.” This I thought was the best way to describe the phenomena. If compression transforms representation for the purposes of technical media, it also transforms media to render them adequate to representation. This leads to the question why and how efficiency and effectiveness, along with an authenticity to get the reliable experience, is a driving concern in the theory of media. Sterne also sheds light on the importance of understanding how and why lower-definition experiences are sometimes among the most intense, significant and meaningful moments in modern life. As new communication infrastructures come into existence, aesthetic representation becomes an engineering problem. Specifically, where people make representational demands upon infrastructures that exceed the carrying capacity.

Furthermore, to sum up the media structures readings, I would say that it contributes towards the development of digital media. Its emphasis was on how digital media represents a physical, concrete and tangible infrastructure. It was a good read, shedding light on several kinds of technologies and implications of digital media infrastructures- which I would never have stopped to think about twice, including data centers, media infrastructures, cloud, and digital compression processes. Now we can easily see the several consequences of these infrastructures on society, especially in relation with media and environmental sustainability. It makes one think how much of the world of technology and data does not meet the eye.