Media-space
Visualising the opportunity-space for content creators - an outline of
my research project. The problem is visualising the convergence of the
multiplicity of technologies that constitute the opportunity-space in
which designers, content creators and progamme-makers now operate. The
aim is to create a collaborative tool for the exploration and brainstorming
of new content ideas. I am exploring new ways of clustering information
together so that a content idea can be visualised in context with contiguous
developments and with the relevant technologies.
illustrated lecture approx 60 minutes minimum, suitable for graduate and post-graduate design/communications/media students.
Visionary vectors
My contention here is that many important new media developments are driven
by the original insights and visions of just a few important visionaries.
I look at Vannevar Bush, the Memex virtual prototype and the idea of associative
linking; Ted Nelson's idea of hypertext and its iteration in his collaborative
work with Andries van Dam, and in his Xanadu idea, and Berners Lee's development
of the WWW. Also I review the ideas and aspirations of Douglas Engelbart,
the work of Jay Forrester on simulating complex systems, Ivan Sutherland
on computer graphics, simulation and human -computer interface design,
Joseph Licklider on man-computer symbiosis and the computer as a communications
device; Alan Kay and his idea of the Dynabook and object-oriented programming;
and survey the work on MUDs and virtual worlds from Richard Bartle at
Essex University through Habitat to the Palace - and beyond to recent
large-scale experimental communities such as BT's The Mirror, Canal Plus
Deuxieme Monde and the work of Bruce Damer.
illustrated lecture approx 60 minutes minimum, suitable for graduate and post-graduate students in design, communications and media.
You Aint Seen Nothing
Yet
The new media span
a much broader range of technologies than just the Web and Digital Television.
This lecture builds a big picture of the current state of new media and
provides an overview of likely developments during this decade.
illustrated lecture approx 60 minutes minimum.
Futurecasting
Technology forecasting and new
media design - an overview of forecasting methods and the problems of
conceptualising a big picture of the new media solution space, identifying
and tracking development vectors, and using the web as a forecasting tool.
Illustrates the territory covered in more depth in 'Futurecasting Digital
Media'
illustrated lecture
approx 60 minutes minimum, suitable
for graduate and post-graduate design/communications/media students.
hypermedia history
A short history of hypermedia, from Vannevar Bush through to Tim Berners Lee and the semantic web proposals. Covers HG Well's 'World Brain' idea, and traces the influence of 'As We May Think' through Engelbart, van Dam, and Nelson. This history also looks at the development of hypermedia technology, from interactive computing and simulation systems (Sutherland, Kay etc) to Joseph Licklider and the ARPANET. Essential contextual history for designers and media students engaged in new media studies.