The New Media Reader: 50.

50. Time Frames by Scott McCloud, 1993

Scott McCloud, a renowned comic book writer, has done much to change the world and consumption of comics. He defines comics as “sequential art” and thus, traces them all of the way back to the ancient Egyptians. McCloud has taken the chance to write a comic about comics and use this form to make his points. He asks very interesting questions about the general and specific representations of people, the space between the frames, the use of color, and the representation of time. Through his comic he states that time and space in the world of comics are very closely linked, as well as time and motion. I really enjoyed reading McCloud’s comics and learned a lot about them, through them!

The New Media Reader: 49.

49. The End of Books by Robert Coover, 1992

Robert Coover taught a hypertext-writing workshop that taught him that allowing students to get to a computer furthered the end of books. This essay appeared in the New York Times Book Review in 1992. Since its appearance, Coover has decided that the Golden age of “literary hypertext has ended, and that this heavily textual era of innovation in the form has given way to the world of the Web.” I though it was intriguing when Coover mentioned that print documents can be read in hyperspace, but that hypertext documents do not translate into print. Basically, work that is done in hypertext must be read in hyperspace.

The New Media Reader: 48.

48. You Say You Want a Revolution? : Hypertext and the Laws of Media by Stuart Moulthrop, 1991

Stuart Moulthrop believes that hope for the future of new media can only be seen by subjecting the essential qualities of a particular new medium to scrutiny.” Moulthrop, using McLuhan’s four-part interrogation plan, studied hypertext. Moulthrop sees that children spend so much time on the computer that it is slowly replacing the television that our parents spent so much time with. I especially enjoyed Moulthrop’s section entitled “4 What does Hypertext Become When Taken to Its Limit?” His explanation of how ration began as a form of “two-way receiving,” and transformed into a medium of “commercial broadcasting” was particularly interesting. I think that it is important to consider the interactivity that we have today and where it could go tomorrow if we aren’t careful.

The New Media Reader: 47.

47. Seeing and Writing by J. David Bolter, 1991



J. David Bolter describes how the history of typography and printing relates to our current situation of writing on a computer screen. He even discusses how “changes in new media influence our concepts of reading and writing.” Bolter’s basic point is that the elements we see on the computer screen have been influenced greatly by previous, non-computer, imagery. Bolter’s comment that if any of the computer fonts were used in a book, readers would immediately notice that something was wrong, was interesting to me. I went and checked my bookshelf, and he is right; most books use a very basic font. I also thought it was interesting when he discussed moving pictures in text and how they have to be digitized to be used.

The New Media Reader: 46.

46. The Lessons of Lucasfilm’s Habitat by Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer, 1991



Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer implemented Habitat in 1991 and were able to learn a lot about online interaction and “the shared experience of a simulated world.” They believed that it was naïve to believe that all of the noble opportunities the system enabled the users to implement would actually be undertaken. The authors specifically focus on “computer mediated communications and virtual environments.” In this essay I really enjoyed the discussion of morality. I think it was necessary of the creators to add weapons to up the level of interaction, yet it saddens me that 50% of the players thought that murder in the game was “part of the fun.”

The New Media Reader: 45.

45. Cardboard Computers: Mocking-It-Up or Hands-On the Future by Pelle Ehn and Morten Kyng, 1991

Pelle Ehn and Morten Kyng were the leaders of a project called Utopia, which works with users throughout the creation and design of new tools. Kyng and Ehn used the idea of a skilled worker to model their user. Similar to Engelbart, they take the craft design process and craft use of tools as models of good software design. The Utopia Project took place in the early 1980s, but today its methods have continued in the Participatory Design movement. The authors take on their questioning through the troubles of the Scandinavian newspaper business. I found to be particularly interesting their discussion and serious advocation for “mock-ups.”

The New Media Reader: 44.

44. The Fantasy Beyond Control by Lynn Hershman, 1990

Lynn Hershman created the first interactive video art installation with her “Lorna.” It consisted of a television, which the viewer could control with a remote, picturing a woman, controlling a television with a remote. Later on, the work expanded to show more of the home and include more interactive elements. Hershmann explains in her essay that video art does not talk back; it is a one sided discourse. She, however, wanted to manipulate this idea and create interactive video. Her work, “Lorna,” came on a disc, one of the first of its kind, and had possibilities for rearranging the work to change the plot. Hershman also gives details about two works in progress, “Deep Contact,” and “Paths of Inner Action.” I loved being able to see the images from “Lorna” in the essay. They were so interesting because they used type to converse with the user/viewer.

The New Media Reader: 43.

43. The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems by Bill Nichols, 1988

Nichols’ essay, in a way similar to that of New Media, brings about thoughts of Turkle, Wiener, feminist film theory, Frankfurt School Marxism, and many other entities. The purpose behind his essay was to update Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Nichols makes his points through a discussion of a few video games, which was interesting to me because I have played some of them. I also found it to be interesting that he discussed some of these games and their relationships to the law.

The New Media Reader: 42.

42. Siren Shapes: Exploratory and Constructive Hypertexts by Michael Joyce, 1988

In this essay, Michael Joyce distinguishes between “exploratory” hypertexts and “constructive” hypertexts. I found this essay to be interesting because through Joyce’s writing, we can see the great differences between the ideas of the earlier hypertext writers and thinkers, including Bush, Engelbart, and Nelson, and the web we have today. Joyce defines “constructive” hypertexts as those that are being created by the user and “exploratory” hypertexts as those that are being experienced by a user that is not the creator. The earlier ideas of Bush, Engelbart, and Nelson allowed the user to go back and forth between these roles. I thought it was interesting how Joyce’s thoughts veered towards the older thinkers’ in that actually creating will enhance education. I hope that some of Joyce’s ideas regarding “constructive” hypertexts come into being very soon.

The New Media Reader: 41.

41. From Plans and Situated Actions by Lucy A. Suchman, 1987

Lucy Suchman believed that the plans and manipulations being used to create interactive devices did not actually mirror the basis for human action, and were therefore misguided. In her “Navigation,” Suchman distinguishes between the “planning and situated action perspectives.” In her “Interactive Artifacts,” she discusses what interactivity means and explains it in historical terms. One of Suchman’s main claims is that we must understand the difference between human interaction and that between humans and machines. Suchman even discusses the work of Sherry Turkle, which I thought was interesting because she distinguishes between the things that one designs and the things that one communicates with.

The New Media Reader: 40.

40. Mythinformation by Langdon Winner, 1986

Winner’s essay is focused upon the “computer revolution” and what it is expected to result in. He immediately questions the social goals and construction of the revolution. Winner believes that there are four myths surrounding the computer revolution. “(1) people are bereft of information; (2) information is knowledge; (3) knowledge is power; and (4) increasing access to information enhances democracy and equalizes social power.” Several thinkers who would agree with Winner’s argument are Engelbart and Nelson. Winner’s basic claim is that the hoped-for future would not come about on its own. I thought that the myths Winner illuminated were interesting and I would never have realized that they were myths.

The New Media Reader: 39.

39. Towards a New Classification of Tele-Information Services by Jan L. Bordewijk and Ben van Kaam, 1986


This essay considers the social role of new media and places them “within a more tightly defined schema.” One of Bordewijk and Kaam’s main points is that the technology in a telecommunications system does not claim to declare the category of service it provides. This essay provides one way of differentiating between and classifying typologies. The purpose of the essay, as they write in their introduction, is to provide a classification of tele-information services based on social power relations to prevent an Orwellian scenario. I found the diagrams and drawings to be extremely helpful in understanding the message the essay.

The New Media Reader: 39.

39. Towards a New Classification of Tele-Information Services by Jan L. Bordewijk and Ben van Kaam, 1986


This essay considers the social role of new media and places them “within a more tightly defined schema.” One of Bordewijk and Kaam’s main points is that the technology in a telecommunications system does not claim to declare the category of service it provides. This essay provides one way of differentiating between and classifying typologies. The purpose of the essay, as they write in their introduction, is to provide a classification of tele-information services based on social power relations to prevent an Orwellian scenario. I found the diagrams and drawings to be extremely helpful in understanding the message the essay.

The New Media Reader: 38.

38. Two Selections by Brenda Laurel, 1986, 1991



Brenda Laurel’s approach to computing is very classical. Laurel believes that the key to understanding computer interaction is found in Aristotle’s Poetics.” Her most important idea is that the computer can and should be studied from a “humanistic perspective” using models from other art forms. Laurel believes that computer interaction can create new forms of drama, and that for this to occur, control of technology has to be given to human beings. I thought that it was very interesting how Laurel remained closely engaged with Aristotle’s works throughout her “The Six Elements and the Causal Relations Among Them.” “Star Raiders: Dramatic Interaction in a Small World” was interesting because of the attention it paid to connecting drama and computers.

The New Media Reader: 37.

37. Using Computers: A Direction for Design by Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores, 1986


Winograd and Flores suggested that rather than working towards artificial intelligence, we should focus on designing computers as tools that “ exploit as strengths precisely those aspects of computational models that render artificial intelligence impossible.” They place importance on using their knowledge to create a positive direction for new media tool design to move in. They turn away from machine understanding and towards machine support. Winograd and Flores also advocate “ontological design” which looks to the basic human communications underway in any situation. They claim that a computer is “a machine that provides new ways for people to communicate with other people.” I liked the way, in this essay, that the authors provided an example to assist the reader’s understanding, as well as the way that new design tools were called modifications of the conversation structure.

The New Media Reader: 36.

36. The GNU Manifesto by Richard Stallman, 1985

Richard Stallman was a member of the legendary group of hackers at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. In the lab, all of the programs and source code were freely available to the whole group, reifying the vision of J.C.R. Licklider. Around 1984 many changes occurred that made the environment much less free. Stallman left MIT and began working to create his own free software, called GNU (“GNU’s Not Unix”). Stallman uses copyright to guarantee users’ freedom, calling it “copyleft.” The program that Stallman worked on is not called Linux. Stallman’s manifesto calls for participation and support for GNU. The part of this essay that I found to be the most interesting was the discussion called “Competition makes things get done better.” I think that this is very true.

The New Media Reader: 35.

35. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century by Donna Haraway, 1985


In this essay, Haraway claims that a boundary being confused is pleasurable and that their construction is our responsibility. She also believes that “a slightly perverse shift of perspective might better enable us to contest for meanings, as well as for other forms of power and pleasure in technologically mediated societies.” Her argument has been successful and in some ways foundational, because it is more accessible to Americans than those of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. I thought that it was interesting that Haraway claimed that socialist-feminism advanced by allying itself with Marxist strategies. My favorite part of her essay was the closing: “Though both are bound in the spiral dance, I would rather be a Cyborg than a goddess.”

The New Media Reader: 30.-34.

30. From Literary Machines Proposal for a Universal Electronic Publishing System and Archive by Ted Nelson, 1981

Literary Machines is Ted Nelson’s most complete outline of his Xanadu project, the definitive archive. The foundation of the project is a world-spanning computer network in which everybody can create his or her own documents. These documents are editable and “degradation-proof” storage allows anybody to visit any version. Each user is also allowed to view the information in their preferred displays. The Web of today offers this idea in part. Nelson’s intention with this essay is written to reveal to the average person the capabilities he describes. Additionally, Nelson is an advocate for “micropayment,” which he suggested for access to the information on Xanadu. One of the most interesting aspects of Nelson’s book Literary Machines is that it is written as a “stretchtext” where the information at the top is the most important; if you read further you get more detail, and by reading to the end of the page you get all of the information. I thought it was interesting that Nelson defined literature as an “ongoing system of interconnecting documents.” To understand this chapter, I had to change my thinking in several ways because I have lived with “documents” and the Internet for most of my life.

31. Will There by Condominiums in Data Space? By Bill Viola, 1982

Bill Viola, a high-profile video artist, creates work in which the “traditionally rough production values of video art are not present.” He has been described as having an almost lyrical and poetic approach to exploring the medium of video. This was something that I noticed in the video we watched about him. His video of the women greeting each other was in no way roughly shot, but was crisp and directed towards the heart. In this essay, Viola discusses the structures and spaces of the mind, computers, and even video art. He even takes a few paragraphs to talk about new technology and its effects on art, which I thought was very important considering his work. I also really enjoyed his little side story The Porcupine and the Car.

32. The Endless Chain by Ben Bagdikian, 1983

Old and new media have become increasingly intertwined. Bagdikian expresses concern that a small number of firms have a large influence on American “culture, commerce, and political power.” With consideration to Ted Nelson’s ideas in Literary Machine, Bagdikian places importance on the front and back ends of new media, receiving and transmitting ends. Bagdikian revealed information about huge companies controlling the information and news we receive. I think that this is completely true today as we have “liberal” and “conservative” new outlets, and CEO’s have such strongly different personal opinions on what is important.

33. Direct Manipulation: A Step Beyond Programming Languages by Ben Shneiderman, 1983

Direct manipulation is defined as the idea that “instead of employing a command language to instruct the computer, the data being processed is exposed and accessed in a more graphically representational way, and immediate visual feedback is provided after every action.” Direct manipulation systems represent data in ways that are more easily understood. A few of these systems, which Shneiderman discusses, include the display of a document in its final form, cursor motion, specifically through a mouse, joystick, or tablet, and buttons for action commands. Shneiderman’s favorite example of direct manipulation is driving a car, which I think is really interesting considering how simple it is.

34. Video Games and Computer Holding Power by Sherry Turkle, 1984

Sherry Turkle, exploring how video games were a way that all ages could encounter a computer, believed that these games played a social and psychological role. Turkle was one of the first to notice that people were able, through playing video games, to take on different roles that affected them individually and socially. Turkle discusses the analogy between video games and television, stating, “Television is something you watch. Video games are something you do.” The story she tells about Jarish is intriguing because of how the child, at 12, is already interested in learning programming. This reveals the large gap between the generations in terms of moving forward with technology. Closing with a story about Jimmy and Cara, Sherry Turkle enlightens us on her thoughts of discipline and perfection, which are enforced by a desire to control the “inside through action on the outside.”

McLuhan's Wake

This documentary about Marshall McLuhan used poetic imagery to give biographical information about the thinker as well as to discuss his concepts about the relationship between humans and technology. One of the film’s assertions is that McLuhan’s ideas have become so understood in our culture that we are sometimes unaware of their presence. The film specifically delves into the four questions that McCluhan asked to attempt to reveal the future of new media. I think that the film was very interesting, however some of the segments that were solely imagery, the trunk floating through the water, seemed to make the film unnecessarily long, and at some times to detract from the real information.

The New Media Reader: 25.-29.

25. Responsive Environments by Myron W. Krueger

Myron W. Krueger was working in new media and attempting to pursue artistic as well as scientific goals. Sometimes referred to as “the father of virtual reality,” his focuses lie in responsive environments, artificial reality, and real time interaction between men and machines. His work was greatly ignored in the visual arts and in computer science his artistic concerns haven’t always been acknowledged. His major assertion is that “the response is the medium” and he claimed, “Meaning is the product of interaction between the observer and the system.” With similar views to Ted Nelson, Krueger calls for lay understanding of technology. Krueger’s work also reminds me of McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Message” because of his belief that the “response is the medium.”

26. Personal Dynamic Media by Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg

This essay, in many ways, foretold what notebook computing has become today. Through his work directing the Xerox PARC group, Kay developed new ideas of notebook computing, and even the notebook computer itself, even though it would not be embraced for many years. Kay saw a problem in that most people saw computers as tools for engineers and businessmen, and he claimed that computers should be able to be used by children and for creative purposes. Kay’s work was similar to Ted Nelson’s Computer Lib/Dream Machine claim that “EVERYBODY SHOULD UNDERSTAND COMPUTERS.” The Star computer that Kay worked on used a graphical interface that became a part of personal computing in Apple’s Macintosh. I really appreciate what these early thinkers did by encouraging the use of computers to be easy. As I sit at my laptop and Photoshop images for a class, I realize that I would be nowhere without their developments.

27. From A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari

Deleuze and Guattari’s literary machine is very different from those of Calvino and Nelson. They also challenge the reader to consider dualisms and claim that “In truth, it is not enough to say, ‘Long live the multiple,’ difficult as it is to raise that cry. No typographical, lexical, or even syntactical cleverness is enough to make it heard. The multiple must be made…” Their A Thousand Plateaus has been considered similar to Eihei Dogen’s 10,000 dharmas. These two thinkers were also actively engaged in political action. A Thousand Plateaus includes many terms that they define in a book they wrote previously, entitled Anti-Oedipus. Their work is often understood to be written from the perspective of “if I were using these terms, this is what I would mean.”

28. From Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas by Seymour Papert

The 1980s is sometimes called the home computer era, in part because children embraced video game consoles. Papert, in this same time, worked to provide “environments in which children could learn through the process of programming.” His philosophy of education was called “constructionism,” and it examined closely the idea of mental construction. Constructionism has influenced new media in many ways, including the MaMaMedia website and the Lego Mindstorms robot kits, named after the book this essay was taken form. Papert predicted that children’s toys would have as much computer power as the super computers, which has proved correct in modern times. To reveal his approach to constructionism, Papert created this hypothetical conversation between two children using a computer and creating drawings. I think it is so interesting that Papert encouraged the use of computers by children, similar to the way that Alan Kay did.

29. “Put-That-There”: Voice and Gesture at the Graphics Interface by Richard A. Bolt

Bolt encouraged combining speech and gesture input to create a computer interface more like a spoken conversation. Computers, in most cases, provide a 2D view into a 3D space. MIT’s Architecture Machine Group tried to find a way to allow the user to experience these as one. A multimodal interface with communication with a computer via several channels, they believed, would make computer use easier. The “Put-That-There” program prefers speech over typing, which is an idea that has yet to stick today. In the “Media Room,” also developed by the AMG, the “computer terminal” is a room which uses a special data management system to use pointing and speech to control the computer.

G.H. Hovagimyan

G.H. Hovagimyan is an experimental digital artist. In the early nineties he became one of the first artists in New York to start working with the Internet. He has won many awards for his work, including a residency program at Eyebeam in 2002.

Since I was sadly unable to attend the class session that G.H. came and spoke at, I had to check out his website to find out what he is all about. He has a large amount of his work up, so I took a closer look at a few of his pieces. One that I found to be particularly interesting was SoaPOPera for laptops – robotoc performance. It is an performance that involves several laptops moving around on radio-controlled cars, which are controlled by performers. The software that the laptops use allow them to talk to each other, sing, and respond to notes by singing along. Sinclair and Hovagimyan perform with the characters by talking with them as well as playing the guitar for them. I watched the video and found it to be very interesting. The laptops have even been given different hairstyles. I think that this installation is very relevant to a lot of the discussions we have been having in class regarding human and computer interaction. We have discussed how people interacting through computers, similar to the people driving the laptops, in a way, embody their character. I also think that it is interesting to think about these computers in relation to the Eliza program. Eliza worried some because people interacted with is as though it was a real person, not a computer. I these videos, I think it is interesting to see people trying to make computers act like humans more and more.

The New Media Reader: 21.-24.

21. Computer Lib / Dream Machines by Theodore H. Nelson

Theodore Nelson wrote this double-sided book in 1974. Computer Lib challenged the notion of computers’ purpose, claiming that it was a personal device. Nelson advocated the use of computers to help people write, think, and show. Dream Machines, the opposite side of the book, said that computers would enable generations of media and that the design of computer experiences should be a creative process taken on with the audience in mind. Nelson yelled that EVERYBODY SHOULD UNDERSTAND COMPUTERS! He also approached the ever-debated topic of computer-assisted instruction, claiming that it could be a good thing, but that currently, it was failing. I appreciated this part of the section the most because I have seen in elementary school how education using computers was not put to its best use.

22. From Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal

Augusto Boal was an advocate of interactive performance who focused his techniques towards therapeutic aims. In 1992 he ran for office as an act of theatre and was elected. With an emphasis on embodiment, Boal attempts to overcome the spectator/actor divide through his work. One of the most interesting parts of Boal’s writing was when he discussed invisible theatre, the presentation of a scene in an environment other than the stage. His example, which took place in a restaurant, was very compelling because the people in the restaurant were very engaged in the staged situation.

23. From Soft Architecture Machines by Nicholas Negroponte

Nicholas Negroponte places a great deal of emphasis on the architectural knowledge of space and design. He says that a user should be empowered by a computer, not hindered and confused. In 1967 Negroponte formed the Architecture Machine Group at MIT and placed attention on managing data spatially rather than in lists. In his essay “Intentionalities”, he questions the levels of awareness that a computer has and in the second part of his writing he argues against the concept that a computer has a special knowledge. What I found to be most interesting was a drawing that he used to illustrate his points.

24. From Computer Power and Human Reason by Joseph Weizenbaum

Joseph Weizebaum came upon his convictions when he programmed a chatterbot and then perceived some dangerous uses of the system that he had engineered. In his essay, he demands that scientists take responsibility for the use of what they discover and develop, much like Norbert Wiener. Weizenbaum’s most famous work is that of Eliza, a conversational program that he wrote. He came upon disturbing facts when some suggested that his program “doctor” be employed as a real therapist, thereby taking jobs from humans. I thought it was interesting when he told the story of his secretary who was so intimately in conversation with the computer that she asked him to leave the room when she was talking to it. I think that it is very intriguing that people can become so involved with interacting with a computer, even when they know it is not real.