Throughout his career, Lev Manovich has never been afraid to make claims. Since his foundational 2001 book on digital aesthetics, The Language of New Media, Manovich has continued to develop terms and methods for conceptualizing our rapidly changing digital media landscape. His latest book, Cultural Analytics, is no exception. From the perspective of having worked with data science tools for well over a decade, Manovich argues “we need to reinvent what it means to study culture” (18). Building on the research of his Cultural Analytics Lab—originally founded at California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology but now also residing at The Graduate Center, City University of New York—Manovich’s book outlines a new set of terms, tools, theories, and methodologies for studying cultural artifacts, experiences, and dynamics that he collectively calls “cultural analytics.”1 Cultural Analytics presents readers with a rare treat that can only come from a seasoned...
University of California Press