Reaction to Generation Flash

GENERATION FLASH looks at the impact of Flash graphics on art in a new era. One thing I first found interesting, is how Manovich categorizes the artist, the media artist, and the software artist, and distinguishes them by separate time periods. For instance the ‘romantic/modernist artist’ is said to be of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century…Does this mean that it is no longer possible for an artist who composes art from scratch to create something new/original? Have the years that have passed since the second half of the 20th century made remixing the only mode of production? Manovich says that the new romantic is the software artist, but is that really the only possibility? I’m not sure if I would agree here. I think it is possible to integrate the paradigms of the new generation, as he says, in more mediums than just software, though software is one good medium (it isn’t the only possibility). (Of course this isn’t necessarily what Manovich is saying, since the article is centrally about Flash).
Software artists intellegintely use media to carry a new meaning, rather than former media artists who were simply remixing in competition with commercial media. They creatively and mathematically (through code) use ‘economical systems’ rather than sampled ‘icons’ to as Manovich says, offer us intelligence rather than ignorance (of media). They also trust the audience's intelligence, providing them with the tools and graphics to interact with and create/understand the intended meanings, rather than overtly throwing them at us, in an almost cliched way as media does, so that they make sure we understand the meaning directly (with no room for discovering meaning on one's one).