What designates a work of art as "new media," exactly? The answer might be found in a recently-published book, "The Language of New Media" (MIT Press, 2001), by new media scholar Lev Manovich. In the book, he is careful to distinguish between analog forms merely transposed to a digital version and truly new media, such as interfaces and database algorithms. Manovich also places more recent formats and platforms within an art historical context and a broader cultural continuum while simultaneously attempting to present a fresh vernacular. Thankfully, although he's an academic, Manovich presents his ideas in language that is anything but esoteric.