Lev Manovich Response

In the excerpt from The Language of New Media, Manovich clearly details how in the postmodern era, artists have been becoming less original and have begun using already existing materials to create new art, using the "logic of selection". While not openly hostile to the concept, he does not seem to be in favor of it, but rather seems to back the idea of romantic creation. I have to disagree. While it is true much of digital art is a "modification of an existing signal", it is not universal. Take for example this piece, being the album art for Everything Everything's Get To Heaven, designed by New Zealand artist Andrew Archer. 

The work is entirely digital, however does not take from existing media in any way besides the tools provided. The phrase "modification of an existing signal" would have to stretch pretty thin to accommodate the painstaking process of designing, drawing, and coloring of such a complicated piece. On the contrary, here is a photo of artist Alex Grey painting one of his famous god heads.

The only difference between the two are the method used to create them, but both utilize the same creativity and skill of the artist. If a work of digital art can be called a "modification of existing signal", how is a painting any different? The existing signal in this case is paint rather than a paint tool. Both ideas were synthesized by the creator.