The digital language, a generative grammar

Abstract

This paper focuses on a researching reflection about the digital compositions of multiple elements and media which are considered as a unique digital language, following the idea by Lev Manovich. Taking one step more, we reflect about how this new digital language works too with a generative or transformational grammar, and we discuss the main elements and traits of the transformational digital grammar. Some transformational operations such as mapping, metaphor and analogy, and conceptual blending, act to retrieve the universal media deep structures and to produce the performances in the dynamic and creative use and development of the web’s language. We consider some of the main matrix of this creative transformations such as the scalable map, the container metaphor, the analogies and metaphors of bodily and positional experiences, and the conceptual blending of various dimensions of language and action.