The New Media Reader: 16.-20.

16. A Research Center for Augmenting Human Intellect by Douglas Engelbart and William English

In 1968, at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, a demonstration that has been considered integral in the development of new media occurred. It was a demonstration of interactive computing and it was a success. English, Engelbart, and their crew at the Augmentation Research Center created it. The ARC originally wanted computers to be focused towards being used by experts, however funding fell towards other companies and what resulted was the user-friendly technology we have today (Think: Apple). Engelbart also advocated a “bootstrapping” principle through which users could become creators, but today the distance between user and creator is vast. However, in class we have been discussing recently developed games where this distance has been greatly reduced (LittleBigPlanet and Spore). Another focus of Engelbart’s was the importance of shared space and a network, which we have now with the Internet. Several terms used in this essay have become very important today. The mouse has become a household name and the “proposed ARPA computer network” is what has become the Internet. While I enjoyed the ideas that Engelbart and English came up with, I am glad that technology has created a user-friendly computer like the Mac.

17. From Software – Information Technology, Its New Meaning for Art

In 1970 an exhibition called “Software” was held, and was unsuccessful in many ways. Like today, when personal computers are sometimes difficult to work with, the computers the exhibition was using were troublesome and prevented much of the artwork from working. The catalog, by Ted Nelson, entitled “Labyrinth,” was interactive and claims to be the first publicly accessible hypertext. The goal of the exhibition was to focus on “information processing systems and their devices,” not to bring artists and technologists together, but to “redefine the entire area of esthetic awareness.” I think that, other than the conceptual works included in the show, “Seek” was a very interesting piece in which a machine responded to the unpredictable behavior of gerbils.

18. Constituents of a Theory of Media by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

In this essay, taken as critical to the theory of media are Marx’s definitions of base: forces and relations of productions, and superstructure: political systems, religion, media, etc. Enzensberger proposes a new organization of media. He sees how technology is held only by the wealthy and wants to change this dynamic so that we have a “network like communications [model] built on the principle of reversibility of circuits.” One example of this would be a reader created newspaper. Enzensberger’s main goal is to bring media equipment into the space of social conflict. I like Enzensberger’s call for technology in schools, and daily we see more and more, schools being supplied with the computers and other technology to keep their students well equipped for learning.

19. Requiem for the Media by Jean Baudrillard

This essay is Jean Baudrillard’s response to Enzensberger’s above essay. Baudrillard argues that media serve a social function and that Enzensberger’s proposed “organized reversible circuits” are not enough. For Baudrillard, the problem lies in the model of communication. He will not accept a reversibility of the roles of producer and consumer, but a transgression of them. I thought it was interesting that our book suggested blogs as an interesting example of this kind of dialogue, with users responding to postings.

20. The Technology and the Society by Raymond Williams

Raymond Williams claims that the “flow” of television is more important than the “program.” He approaches the topic of “technological determinism” as well. This term, made famous through McLuhan, “frames questions around technology in terms of technology’s ‘effects’ on the culture.” Through the development and changes in television, this technology has become a part of our lives that we would really miss if it were gone. I liked how it was also discussed that the internet is still being created through “social processes interacting with scientific/technical processes.” It is interesting that I am a part of the growing internet, that user-responsive development is crucial to the growth of the internet.

Visiting Ken Perlin

On Thursday we made a visit to Ken Perlin's lab at NYU. It was a really great opportunity to take a look at all of the projects that he is currently working on.

The first invention that we got to take a look at was called the Un-Mouse. It looked like a piece of paper plugged into the computer, but when it was attached, and the right program was pulled up, it provided a direct connection from the user's hand to the computer screen. There was piano program that would be used to play music. There was also a paint program. The great thing about this program was that the invention understands how hard you are pressing, and therefore, the paint program actually looks like finger-painting. It was really interesting how the strokes of each finger turned out differently depending on how you moved your hand. The most interesting program that this invention works with is that one that starts out with a flat 3D-looking surface, but can be changed through touching your fingers on the pad. It was really fascinating because it was like molding clay on the screen. A similar program involved creating your own planet.

The second invention that we got to look at was an interactive computer game to simulate flying like a bird. There was a huge screen, with the bird and the background projected on it that move as you moved. The way you flew the bird was by holding onto handles hanging from the ceiling and flapping your arms! It was also connected to several fans that sped up and slowed down depending on how quickly you flapped. The point of the game was to fly through hoops, but it looked like it would have been very fun to just fly around.

It was a fascinating trip to Ken Perlin's lab and it was really nice to meet a person who has really changed the virtual world through many of his different projects. Several of the works that we discussed before visiting his lab, the dancer girl, the actor program, and the pad program, were good to see before going to visit Perlin because they gave me a basis on which to understand how his mind works.

The New Media Reader: 13.-15.

13. The Galaxy Reconfigured by Marshall McLuhan


Marshall McLuhan believes that "media extend human abilities and the human body itself." In this way, different media invite different kinds of engagement from their audiences. McLuhan was an advocate for the study of popular media and focused on the shift from book-culture to electronic media culture. Edgar Allen Poe saw that, in anticipation of effect, one shouldn't direct the art towards the reader, but incorporate him into it. McLuhan also discusses the way popular art consumers became participants in the art process, bringing senses and function together. I think that this is an interesting take on interactive artwork through the literary.

The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan

In this essay McLuhan focuses on how "the personal and social consequences of a medium result from the new scale that the medium introduces." His example is that through the creation of automated machines, that medium has caused humans to lose jobs. McLuhan disagrees with David Sarnoff's idea that the way a medium is used determines its value and continues to return to the idea that the content of a medium is always another medium. His example of this is that "The content of writing or print is speech, but the reader is almost entirely unaware either of print or of speech." This is the most interesting topic that McLuhan approaches because it has caused me, since I read his essay, to constantly reevaluate what media I am looking at and how those media have underlying media.

14. Four Selections by Experiments in Art and Technology


E.A.T, (Experiments in Art and Technology), was a group that joined artistic and technical exploration. One of their most famous projects was called "9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering. In these four sections, the E.A.T. experiments are discussed.

First, Kluver, the current president, writes about machines and l'art ephemere, which focuses on a direct connection between the creative act of the artist and the receptive act of the audience.

We then see several diagrams and descriptions of the work that was included in 9 Evenings. One of the most interesting to me is Robert Rauschenberg's project that involved tennis, light, and sound, all coming together to create a dance performance. The most interesting part of the work is that the lights turn out and the audience cannot see what is directly in front of them, they have to watch screens that have it pictured.


Kluver also writes about the Pavilion, a work that the same group did, in which the visitor became a part of the "total theatre experience." In a large space with mirrors, sound, and visuals, these artists created several different performances.

15. Cybernated Art


In the essay about cybernated art, Nam June Paik is named the first video artist. Cybernetics is defined as the "exploitation of boundary regions between and across various existing sciences" by Paik in his pamphlet, "Cybernated Art." He also includes his musings on buddhism and karma. I think it is interesting that he put so much thought into video art, when in comparison, our youtube generation puts a range of none to a lot of thought into their work.

The New Media Reader: 09.-12.

09. Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System by Ivan E. Sutherland

Sketchpad was the first program used for computer drawing. It was the first "direct-manipulation interface" and was considered "conversational by many. In these ways, it was a beginning step towards the programs we use today like Illustrator. One important aspect of Sketchpad was that you could save a shape and use it again in a different way, or by changing it. This reuse allowed easier repetitive work. There were 2000 levels of magnification, making large or small scale projects more easily executable. Often used in a combination of engineering and art, Sketchpad also moved from 2D to 3D eventually. I am thankful for the invention of Sketchpad because it began the movement towards more advanced programs that help me today in design.

10. The Construction of Change by Roy Ascott

Roy Ascott discusses the difference between participation in art and interaction with art. In agreement with Frank Popper, he claims that participation is an involvement on the contemplative and behavioral levels. He also claims that interaction is a two way action between the art and the spectator. In Ascott's view, art can allow a participant to become responsible for its meaning. He believes that analysis and experiment lead to synthesis and recommends that artists turn to cybernetics. This kind of interactive and participatory art is popular today and really peaked during the 70s. I think that this art makes the biggest impact on its viewer because the viewer is so integral to the work.

11. A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate by Theodore H. Nelson

Ted Nelson defines hypertext as a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper. It is complex, reconfigurable, linked structures of information which can be manipulated. As a precursor to the Palm Pilot, Nelson discusses a way to make personal information manageable through a filing software. For this work to be successful he suggests that it require: an index of contents, commentaries and explanations connected to files, possibility of revising and rewording of text, and a way to hold different versions for comparison. His invention was called the ELF-evolutionary file structure. We have seen ideas similar to Nelson's in the memex of Bush, but none so close to being real. I think it is interesting that Nelson was thinking of these kinds of technologies so long before they were actually created.

12. Six Selections by the Oulipo

The Oulipo were a group of writers and creatives who explored "potential literature." Examples of their work include writings that utilize palindromes as well as lipograms, a text in which one letter cannot be used. The Oulipo also applied algorithmic techniques to the creation of narrative: hypermedia and choose-your-own-adventure books. Their poems are rearrangeable by the reader, which is a fascinating way to interact with the reader. Through their work, the Oulipo changed the relationship between the reader, text, and the author. I find their work to be so interesting because it focuses on the idea that each reader will walk away from each text with a different understanding.

To The Letter Born

The idea of using a typeface to define and represent a political campaign is an interesting question. Before I read this article, I had noticed Barack Obama's campaign materials as being visually appealing, but had not taken specific note of his use of typeface. Apparently, he uses Gotham, which was designed by Tobias Frere-Jones. Steven Heller interviews Brian Collins, an expert on branding, to question how design affects a candidate's campaign and subsequent success. Obama's campaign has been branded very carefully, although that is easier said than done because of the great amount of work, spread over a large distance, that makes up a campaign. Obama's bold CHANGE posters are eye catching, and his website is well put together. The reason the design of Barack Obama's campaign works so well is that it is consistent. I had originally thought that Obama's typeface, Gotham, was specifically useful for him, but Heller believes that it would have worked just as well for any candidate.

The images included in this article really helped it to make its point. Towards the end, Heller compares the success of the CHANGE declaration in Comic Sans, Times Roman, and Gotham. Even a quick glance lets us know how Gotham really does make a difference. I found it interesting as well that Obama has created buttons for each state, using his basic design ideas, that help to make each voter feel part of a larger movement.

Helvetica

The Helvetica documentary was extremely interesting. After seeing the text based art of R. Luke Dubois last week in the Chelsea galleries, I was very intrigued by the use of typeface in artwork. Watching the Helvetica film made me realize that not only is text fascinating in artwork, but in our lives as well. Helvetica is such a prolific typeface that we do not realize how often we are looking at it. The visual culture that we are living in today is swamped with text. We cannot walk down the street without reading (or ignoring) hundreds of advertisements, most completed with the use of Helvetica.

I enjoyed hearing the different viewpoints typographers, graphic designers, and advertisers expressed concerning Helvetica. While some adore its minimal, clean and clear way of communicating, some find its sleekness to be boring. I also loved the screenshots of various uses of Helvetica because I realized how often the typeface is in my view. Through watching this film I became interested in using typeface in artwork. Although I have not decided if I am in the for or against party in the battle over Helvetica, I do download fonts almost daily for use in my advertising class. It is interesting how much a word can say without even being read.

The New Media Reader: 05.-08.

05. Man-Computer Symbiosis by J.C.R. Licklider

Licklider believes that Man-Computer symbiosis is expected in the future and that it will allow humans to think in ways that we haven't ever before thought. He writes about how much of man's "thinking time" is devoted to preparing for thinking. We search, calculate, plot, transform, and do many other preparative activities that could be done by computers. If this were to happen, and computers were brought into the "formulative parts of technical problems," humans could spend less time getting ready to think and more time actually thinking. While this seems, to Licklider, to be a perfect way to move ahead in technology he does state some reasons this man-computer symbiosis was not possible in his time. The barriers he discusses include, among many others, the problem of speed. Using a computer to assist in making a decision requires that computer to be capable of making the decision at such a speed that it is still useful when it has been completed. Another problem Licklider sees is the disparate languages humans and computers speak. He sees correcting this problem as key to communication between man and computer, and eventually man-computer symbiosis.

It is nice to see that most of the problems Licklider highlights have been solved in present time. Our computers are extremely fast and our displays and controls are more advanced than necessary to serve their purposes. I do agree with Licklider that communication between man and computer is key to computer-man symbiosis, although I do sometimes feel as though the lines of communication between my computer and I are difficult to master.

06. "Happenings" in the New York Scene by Allan Kaprow

Happenings are a kind of art that can go in any direction. Kaprow describes happenings as including moving boxes, screens with hamburgers on them, and scenes so wild that the audience has to leave the gallery. The relationship between art and environment is the most important part of Happenings. The art is shaped by its environment. When defining Happenings Kaprow uses the analogy of Theater:Happenings as Painting:Collage. This is interesting to me because he approaches the crossing lines of media. Kaprow's description of Happenings as built upon chance catches my attention because this essay seems to hold chance highly while the more technical essays we have been reading are more closely focused on very structured thought.

07. The Cut Up Method of Brion Gysin by William S. Burroughs

Burroughs' essay describes the idea of taking writing and augmenting it in a collage form. Burroughs discusses the idea using the random placement of words to create artwork, and to say something in multiple ways. By taking a poem, cutting it into pieces, and rearranging it, Burroughs suggests that anybody can be an artist. I thought it was interesting that Burroughs created a word collage at the end of the essay with the actual essay so that the reader could get a visual idea of what he was talking about.

08. Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework by Douglas Engelbart

Importance to Engelbart lies in increasing man's capabilities. He believes that this will be best done through computer technology. In contrast to Licklider's idea of computer-man symbiosis, Engelbart's relationship between the computer and the man is more interested in using the computer to assist the man. In his descriptions, adding to Bush's Memex, Engelbart even calls the computer a "clerk." By increasing man's brainpower through a relationship with a computer, Engelbart intends to make man more intellectually effective. I thought Engelbart's essay was creative because he was speaking in a very professorial manner but then changed directions and told a story, or conversation. Through this story he described what we know today as word-processing.