Not to start up a discussion again on Manovich (as earlier on this blog), I think it was a clear presentation (this time). My only issue is that the example of Rothko is not the strongest in defending the case for cultural analytics. I think for me the so-what question in the example was very unclear. So, Rothko had one odd painting. What does this say? That he had a bad day?
For me it would be interesting to use these tools to research much broader themes (like the influence of search engine interface design on visual culture for instance – referring here to the notion of the ‘porcelain interface’ talk by Alessandro Ludovico. See post here:http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/query/2009/11/14/allesandro-ludovico-%E2%80%9Cthe-google-paradigm-for-the-final-dictator-it-is-never-enough%E2%80%9D/). Anyways, thanks for posting.