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Computation as a Medium

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Presentation on theme: "Computation as a Medium"— Presentation transcript:

1 Computation as a Medium
Week 1 LCC 2700: Intro to Computational Media

2 NMR Intro: Inventing the Medium
Engineers looking for a more coherent way of presenting massive information of postwar era Engineers looking for tools to help people to think more efficiently Engineers believe in the possibility of integrating our perceptions of the world Late 20th Century humanists (writers, artists, philosophers) disgusted with intellect and integrative ideologies Humanists fascinated with multiplicity of ways of seeing the same phenomena (Borges) Divergent approaches twist together to co- invent the digital medium

3 A new medium! Happens rarely in human history
Writing ~3500 BC Printing Press Photography ~1850

4 Computation as a Medium like Print
Medium Format Genres Print book novel, history periodical newspaper, magazine Computer html page website, blog videogame shooter, rpg… database payroll, archive

5 Computation as a Medium like Print
Medium Power of representation Print Don Quixote Effect Computer Eliza Effect

6 Other models of computation
Technology (like an engine in a car) Tool (like a pencil or slide rule) Appliance (information toaster) Transmitter of other media (network of moving bits) These are valid but more limited as an orientation for designer/inventors Medium is a more inclusive framework

7 Advantages of the Media Model
For both design and understanding Historical perspective, analogies to other periods of media transition Rich design palette from legacy practices Connects computation with other forms of cultural expression Focuses us on coherent form

8 What is a medium? Something in the physical world that contains an idea of a person, place, thing, event, or concept.

9 Media vs Technologies A medium contains (communicates) ideas through conventions of representation. A technology is a set of methods and materials for doing something, such as creating a media artifact. The computer can be thought of as an evolving medium that rests on a set of changing technologies.

10 Converging Technologies/Converging Media
Digital television/videogame console hooked to internet Telephone/camera/appointment book/music player Actors merging with animations in movies NY Times producing 1 minute videos on website NBC producing text and still image articles on website Google creating digital, searchable, networked library Replacement of paper, film, audio tape, vinyl records, video tape with digital formats

11 A medium relies on Accessible Practices of Inscription
Fixed Practices of Transmission Open Ended Practices of Representation These practices are always cultural and may or may not be technological Cultural = all shared behaviors , interpretations, and values beyond our biological endowment

12 Inscription = Intentional perceptible impression
Impression may be temporal or spatial Impression may be auditory, visual, tactile Impression requires malleable material to receive and (perhaps) preserve it Impression requires a means of marking the material What is a medium?: Inscription – Transmission - Representation

13 Examples of inscription
Sounds made by vocal tract, impressed in the form of sound waves Cuneiform wedges on clay Hieroglyphics on papyris Roman letters on Trajan marble monument Moving images on film or videotape Electro-magnetic charges configured as bits What is a medium?: Inscription – Transmission - Representation

14 Issues of Inscription Temporality (speech, film)
Spatiality: capacity, direction Ease of marking Persistence of marking (fired clay) Faithfulness of marking, copying

15 Transmission Impressions conveyed from a sender to a receiver, from a creator to a perceiver Can be transmitted over time (preserved) Can be transmitted over distance (relayed) What is a medium?: Inscription – Transmission - Representation

16 Transmission Involves Coding
Telegraph model: Message -> Coded -> Relayed –> Decoded Examples of standardized transmission codes: Facial expressions Cries Phonemes of spoken language Alphabet Ascii What is a medium?: Inscription – Transmission - Representation

17 Issues of Transmission
Coding: how well does the code capture the message? Alphabet with and without vowels Binary vs analog codes Noise: how accurately is the code transmitted? Static on a radio signal Interpretation by receiver Does the receiver know how to decipher the code? Does the code mean the same to the sender and the receiver?

18 Representation Assignment of meaning to the transmitted impressions
Based on shared experience, conventions of abstraction, conventions of symbolic coding Always an act of interpretation from one consciousness to another (or same consciousness over time) What is a medium?: Inscription – Transmission - Representation

19 Representation Based on an expanding set of meaningful conventions
Set of lines interpreted as house, person, tree Alphabetic text interpreted as sounds, words, meanings Interface icons interpreted as buttons connected to actions What is a medium?: Inscription – Transmission - Representation

20 Mature media have established conventions
30 minute format with commercial breaks Parents and kids Foolish behavior Loving/fighting

21 Established Media Conventions
?

22 Established Media Conventions
Paragraphs Lead paragraphs Headlines Mastheads News photo Byline Column Sentence Inverted pyramid structure Feature vs News vs Editorial

23 Established Media Conventions
Columns Capitals and small letters Spaces between words Initial letters: chapter divisions Page numbers Tables of contents Indexes Title page Handwriting styles Typefaces

24 Established Media Conventions
Frame Information encoded by subject matter Color/B&W Rule of Thirds

25 Convergence breaks down coherence

26 Birth of a medium Arrival of the Train at Ciotat Station, 1895

27 How to invent a medium Start with existing genres and import them to new formats Understand unique affordances of new modes of inscription and transmission Maximize these affordances for purposes of more powerful representation

28 Summary week 1 Computation as a Medium
Other models of computation Advantages of media model Medium: inscription, transmission, representation Media conventions bring coherence Convergence disrupts coherence How to invent a medium Next week: McLuhan, Nelson, HoH 3,


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