Modularity is the idea that new media consists of multiple units, which can function both independently, or as components in a larger project. Lev Manovich describes the state of new media under this principle as a “fractal structure” in his text The Language of New Media, and when observing many examples of modern media this concept is very clear. One of the more basic examples of this phenomenon is in social media; traditionally online videos were treated as a singular audio/visual product, with both parts being necessary for it to function in the intended way. However, the concept of modularity has altered this union, with the majority of videos on social media being completely functional when muted, as the visual component is able to function as its own independent unit. Manovich also discusses the Internet as a whole as also being fundamentally modular, with different websites acting as modules. In this environment, media would logically have to conform to a similar modularity, as the Internet enables us to easily access singular components of a holistic media project (i.e. a Google image search being used to find a screenshot from a web series).

In our project, Sam and I decided to take this concept of modularity and apply it in a somewhat unconventional way. The idea is to expand on our interactive livestream from assignment 1 (link here) but design it in such a way that each viewer contributes their own “module” which both functions as its own entity while also adding value to the streamer’s activity. At the moment we’re still developing an idea to stream that will effectively put this idea into practise while still retaining the qualities of a live form of media.